by Kirby Wright
The ground exceeds saturation.
Owners drain backyard pools
With rented pumps and hoses.
Dogs growl at raindrops.
Water spouts sighted off Newport.
Coastal roofs prepare for their beating.
Here’s the 3rd storm in a series of 4.
Huntington’s tornado lifted a houseboat.
Wind roars at the windows.
The screens rattle.
Neighborhood chimes ring like xylophones.
Palms and bamboo flutter most—
Leaves excite and shout
Like teenagers at a car wash.
Pines and oaks are mostly stoic;
Arms sway but spines remain
As true as iron.
Disneyland and Knotts threaten to close.
A plastic cup skids over asphalt.
Cats hunker down on blankets.
The mailman delivers mail fast,
Speeds the block like a demon.
The ice cream truck’s on hiatus.
It’s a good day for delivery pizza.
Sparrows dance in weeds and grass,
Rescue most of the drowning.
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ABOUT THE POET ~
Kirby Wright was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii. He is a graduate of Punahou School in Honolulu and the University of California at San Diego. He received his MFA in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University. Wright has been nominated for two Pushcart Prizes and is a past recipient of the Jodi Stutz Memorial Prize in Poetry, the Ann Fields Poetry Prize, the Academy of American Poets Award, the Browning Society Award for Dramatic Monologue, and Arts Council Silicon Valley Fellowships in Poetry and The Novel. BEFORE THE CITY, his first book of poetry, took First Place at the 2003 San Diego Book Awards. Wright is also the author of the companion novels PUNAHOU BLUES and MOLOKA’I NUI AHINA, both set in Hawaii. He was a Visiting Writer at the 2009 International Writers Conference in Hong Kong, where he represented the Pacific Rim region of Hawaii. He was also a Visiting Writer at the 2010 Martha’s Vineyard Writers Residency in Edgartown, Mass., and the 2011 Artist in Residence at Milkwood International, Czech Republic.
Last updated September 08, 2011