De-Formation

Blue skies
Glorious sunshine
Lazy lizards lingering
Songbirds soaring
Flowers flowering…
A time of calm.

And then the storms came
Tearing the umbrella out of its stand
Shredding its fabric
With its violent winds
Breaking the staves
Tossing its broken body
Onto the roof.
I saw tender new leaves
Torn from their branches
Tossed into the storm-whipped waves
Of the pool
To sink, lifeless, to the bottom.

I sat
Trepidation stalking my heart.
I sat
Listening to the winds
Moaning in the chimney:

The sound of lost souls
crying in the darkness.