Hurricane

Image: a street in my neighborhood following Hurricane Milton.

There’s nothing like two back-to-back hurricanes to remind you to talk more to people you care about.

I am, in fact, still alive. After last year’s grief and illness, I began writing poetry (hopefully more on that to come!), and I’ve been migrating the blog away from WordPress to a static site generator. I’ve also been reading more, mostly non-fiction.

I guess one could say I was complacent.

There’s been a persistent numbness lately, as if a circuit board in my brain was shorted in a power surge and lies dead and smoldering. So, so many things have happened – are happening – are about to happen – that they cannot be processed. Like logs down a river, my feelings have caught on the banks and jammed.

After my post about Harvey, we Floridians, as well as those in the Caribbean islands, had to deal with Irma. I evacuated with a friend to Tallahassee for several days to wait out the storm, worried about family and friends who stayed behind. After two weeks of gas shortages, empty grocery stores, and awful traffic, I made it home, my apartment just as I had left it.