DEVASTATED
The thunder peals so loud I hold my ears,
and shut my eyes against the fulgent flash,
as lightning slashes through the blackened sky.
Oh, please, have mercy, give me one more day.
I’ve laid my stillborn son within her arms,
cocooned in quilts she’d sewn before the fire.
The agony consumes my tortured soul
as rain for which I’d prayed now fills the grave.
Yet fast and hard the raindrops come in sheets
to wash away the earth I’d dug in scoops.
Exhausted now, I stare, as mud slides down
into the hole in ugly rain-swept globs
where lies my precious love, my hope, my life
and beats upon the withered stalks of grain.
Faye Adams, 75, of De Soto, is a retired medical transcriptionist and tax preparer. Her husband Billy is president of Missouri State Poetry Society. Faye and Billy have been married 55 years. They have four children and eight grandchildren. Faye has published four hardback books, which can be viewed on her web site at fayeadams.com. Her hobbies are reading, gardening and dancing. Her sun sign is Taurus.