In the Storm's Eye

That year the tornado came through
rattling the windows

we huddled in the bathtub
pressed to each other

she whispered
“I left the burner on”

above the sirens
I called “kit kit kit”

the cat sauntering by
as the twister lifted

our house unscathed
though our stew had scorched—

she and I giddy, believing
our little paradise had gone unseen









Darrell Petska’s writing appears in Blast Furnace, The Tule Review, Mobius: The Journal of Social Change, Red Paint Hill and numerous other journals. Darrell cut short his career as a university publications editor to be the arbiter of his own words. He now is, in Madison, Wisconsin.

See another poem in issue 4.3