Storm Is Misunderstood
after Emma Bolden
Storm steals like a simile. Storm seeks but does not find.
Storm will not remind you to ingest promises or pills.
Storm is not a cotton-ball cloud & glitter-glue lightning
on a black-paper bed. Look, Storm’s clouds scatter—
play duck, luck, noose. They shout & shiver.
Storm mouths oceans, swishes them between its teeth,
spits them sideways. Listen, you’ll hear the trees slurping,
savoring Storm's saliva. Storm is holy, hungry,
& slippery. Feel this, its hair contains whispers
brushed with dust, encrusted with tulle.
Storm is not angry in the sky. It does not house
raging gods, bowling giants, stomping elephants.
Storm exists in the sky & when sun burns
the clouds away, Storm is never the one screaming.
Storm Explores Its Origins
Unstable atmosphere—cold, hot,
hot, cold. Vapors as vespers rising
toward the heavens. Collision,
collection, condensation.
Storm dislikes this story, writes
its own. A father made of fire.
A mother born of stone. A star
to salute its genesis.
Swollen with self-certainty,
with sulfur, with saline,
Storm disregards
your desires. Your longings
lost to gusts of glory. Who have you
loved? How did you lose it all?
Where did you learn to lament?
Storm never wonders, never asks.
Storm Writes A Novel
The protagonist is a parrot named Crackers who escapes from the circus and instead performs his death-defying acts—jumping through rings of fire, swallowing fire, saying “Fire, Fire, Fire!”—for the pedestrians on the streets of New York City. One day, Crackers goes to a movie, a RomCom, a second-chance love story starring Cameron Diaz and Matthew Broderick. Crackers sits in the back row with his self-sized container of popcorn and his girlfriend Banana the canary. Well, Banana dares Crackers to perform his act during the commercials. He hops down from his seat and starts his routine, tiny top hat and all. But when he lights his rings and says “Fire, Fire, Fire,” everyone starts running out of the theater, trampling Crackers to death. In the final chapter, Banana cries in the rain, cries on the roof, cries until she perches on the top of a lightning rod and bursts into flames.
