Aftermath

Frances was devastating

Leaving behind the eerie silence of death, debris, and destruction

Branches stripped bare of leaves

Few structures left standing

A child’s dirty, matted, gray, stuffed Duck

Lies upon a fallen tree trunk

Strewn over the remains of a wooden fence, deck, or boardwalk

A kaleidoscope of plastic, paper, and metal

Scattered on green grass and brown mud

That stinks of raw, rotten sewage

The only hint of former life

And human habitation

Visible in this scene reminiscent of a war zone

Floodwaters of tears swell over my heart

As I am drowned by feelings of distress and abandonment

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I began working on this Ekphrastic poem at the West Virginia Writer’s Fall 208 Conference as I responded to a visual prompt, the above photo from a magazine, in a Poetry Workshop presented by Kari Gunter-Symour.