Debris.

I haven't posted since the day before the tornados ripped through Springfield. I've wanted to, but I haven't quite known where to start. There's been no shortage of things going round in my head, but emotions have been running high in me... and well, it's never a good thing to write on the internet when the heart is holding the brain hostage. I've seen a lot since Wednesday afternoon. Close up... like, real close up.

In the wake of much upset, this morning I moved to a place that I always go to when emotions are difficult for me to handle. It's a place on the floor... cross-legged, behind pen and paper. I so love the comfort of the written word. The blank page I held in my hand brought to mind images from the tornados that tore through our city. Debris. Huge heavy slices of stuff, being puffed around like paper. It's hard to look at debris. It's difficult to comprehend. Debris is one of those words that says a lot... and yet says nothing of what it really is.

Debris.

It's the roof of a house spinning airborne.
It's concrete, in freefall descents.
It's trees slamming up against front doors.
It's glass, sharding classrooms and creche.
It's picket fence impaled through kitchens.
It's bed linen, coddling bare boughs.
It's mail found on lawns many miles away.
It's the whys, and the wherefores and hows.
It's the pleas in the eyes of the helpless.
It's the open mouth stare of aghast.
Much more than six alphabet letters.
It's Debris: wretchedness unsurpassed.

-sm, 6/5/2011

"Debris" flowed with ease from my pen this morning, having watched the video below. Now that it's freed from the dark of my mind, I'm hoping I can concentrate more and put my head back into the soapy stuff.