A Love Song in the Eye of the Hurricane

 It's so quiet.

Just weeks after Hurricane Irma  devastated 
Florida's SW coast, Nicole's eye passed over us
on the SE coast, thankfully only a Cat. 1.
My writers' group was assigned to write
something tonight about the eye.

Peace, even.

A welcome respite from the unleashed fury 

    only moments ago.

And yet, I know it's temporary.

The back side of the storm approaches with

    unfinished business.

A trick of nature. Life's sarcastic side revealed.

And isn't it always thus?

A crisis descends upon us suddenly and we endure,

    hanging on by fingernails we've bitten to the quick.

The grace is there for every hour and day 

    but when we fall into a fitful sleep that night ...

There's nothing left. The grace, like manna in the wilderness,

    doesn't keep. And then one day --

It's done. The eye of the storm of life passes over

    leaving clear skies, blue skies again,

And all is right with the world.

We dance and laugh, knowing deep down that it won't last.

But in the moment, we delight. We savor. We hope...again...

    that this will last forever, knowing that it won't.

Knowing that it can't but trusting...still...the promises 

    of grace and strength we learned in Sunday School

When we were innocent of hurricanes,

When clouds were simply funny shapes and not the 

    harbingers of doom. The storms will always come.

The storms will always pass.

Everything and everyone are here on loan,

    temporary joys and woes.

So little, really, is permanent, sustained, reliable.

There's God, of course.

There's you.

(c) Ellen Gillette, 2022

Four Women (Or Just One)

When Wendy Dwyer, my writer's group facilitator,
said to write about our passions for
our upcoming I wasn't thinking
of knees. Who would? But then I did.

The woman's knees are calloused,
crouched beside him nailing shingles,
finishing the house she wants to
be a home. Hard work,
she's more than willing,
able, too to see it through, believing he will also
work to see their dreams come true.
She's called to something greater
than herself. Her passion is this
marriage. She's a princess, help-mate, lover,
hopeful that the best is yet to come,
that happy as she is, there will be more.
(Note to herself to pick up lotion from the store.)

The woman's knees are just a little calloused,
crawling on the floor while
playing with the four-year-old,
the two-year-old, her pregnant belly
not a hindrance, and, indeed, she makes
a better elephant that way. Giggles
and guffaws collect and fill the room until,
exhausted, they collapse inside each other's
warm embrace. She's called to something greater
than herself. Her passion is this
family and she is queen of runny noses,
diapers, proper meals, and naps.
(A little baby oil, perhaps? That rough place
might just snag her hose. She grins. As if
she'll soon be wearing those.)

The woman's knees are pink and calloused,
cultivating reverence for her God, a nod
to works when grace is what she's sure
is all that's keeping her from falling clean
apart. It's hard, at times, this life he's handed her
to live, but then again, he gives the
strength and patience to do just that, while
molding her into someone who's soft and pliable, but
fierce as well, not far beneath the surface.
She is called to something greater
than herself, her holy quest a passion that is
simple and profound: to be the daughter of the king
of kings, his servant, and his friend.
(No pride in prayer, for that would be a sin,
and anyway she mostly cries, and trusts he
knows the whys.)

The woman's knees are slightly calloused,
coupled over him, entwined, sublimely
moving to the rhythm of their breaths,
bodacious breasts pressed there against
his skin. A lifetime being loved by
someone who will let her love him back
won't be enough, but she is grateful for
the years she has to be his woman and his
confidante, the hands he holds while walking
on the street, discreetly finding other ways
to touch her, never wanting her to be out
of sight for long. Belonging to an Us,
a something greater than herself, the passion
is not hers alone. And later, when she's
resting quietly, her knees will be anointed
both with lotion and with kisses. Missing nothing
he has noticed the faint roughness,
reveling in all it represents, twin tributes to
her passions throughout life.



(c) Ellen Gillette, 2016