Xenia, Ohio (Tornado, Apr.4,1974) Poem by Laurence Overmire

Heard it on the news, several hours distance
The tornado touched down.

Blew away the pond in the park.
The ducks were gone.

Threw a bus on the school.
Kids screaming inside.

The neighborhood leveled
Like the swing of a scythe.

Nothing was what it was.
Everything was rubble.

My childhood too was
Blown away.

The places I knew were
No more.

No where to go back to…
The path that led from there to here.

Time has a way, twistered minutes wrapped
Around a telephone pole…

The line is cut, with no way or why or how
To call home or even

Get help.


Note: Xenia, Ohio, a small town near Dayton and the boyhood home of the poet, made national headlines when it was devastated by a tornado on April 4,1974.

(Previously published in Three Smiles, Dec.2000)