BORN UPRIVER
from Tornado Alley
he knows the Ohio River valley
east of the New Madrid fault line,
east of the funnel clouds
twisting apart Kentucky barns.
His storms were never twisters,
more monsoons near
the Mekong, or hurricanes
cooked up off Africa to flush
Caribbean islands, volcanic peaks.
His seasonal storms
have been wars. He was spared.
But you never know
what the meteorologists
will say next. Burns in Colorado.
Something is blowing in.
The hurricane hunters
are even now airborne
piercing storm clouds
to get a reading.
Out west, snowmelt
runs over Montana.
Floods in Crow Indian Reservation.
In Waco he chokes on smoke.
pea river journal 
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