Storm Stories

Here's a fragment:

I am talking about being in a Hurricane on my 40th Birthday. I was at the beach and I refused to leave. This was before Katrina and Charley, of course.

Tremendous winds
Knocked me over
I refused to go inside
Something wild in me needed to know I was alive
I wanted to be lost in the thrashing waves
Feel the sand sting my legs

I wanted to let myself go and become as wild and ferocious as the storm
The dark and clamorous clouds were foreboding – but also strangely inviting
I could not take my eyes off the horizon
Hair whipping, black dress violently clinging to every lump and curve,
I wanted to feel alive, forget the pain in my legs and feet
Forget that I was crippled with arthritis, my eyes were getting weaker, my skin was sagging – remember what it was to be a child, to be carefree, but to be WILD as the wind

For once, I wanted to be inside the storm – caught in the vortex of the hurricane’s eye –
Destroying and consuming all in my path
Savage
Raw and primitive