Notes About The Poem
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Poem written for and submitted to “Tempest” poetry contest, Robert James Liguori, sponsor, January 17, 2026.
TEMPESTAS INNOMINATA
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
At first, the sky split like wet paper,
a soundless tear widening~
then came the howl,
not wind but something older,
chomping away at the edges of gravity.
Cities collapsed inward~
skyscrapers bowing like stalks of wheat,
glass raining upward into the maw of clouds.
The ocean stood on its head,
fish gasping in the sudden air,
their silver bodies flashing
like discarded coins.
Somewhere, a child’s laughter
was cut short by the taste of iron,
their mother’s hands clutching at the ground
as it liquefied beneath her.
Dogs howled in unison,
then fell silent,
their throats full of ash.
The tempest had no name,
no reason, only hunger~
swallowing forests whole,
leaving behind teeth marks
in the bedrock.
When it passed (if it passed),
the survivors dug their fingers
into the new earth,
pulling out fistfuls of blackened roots,
wondering if the sky
would ever stop chewing.
They named the silence aftermath,
counted teeth marks on the horizon,
licking their wounds and
tasting the residue of swallowed cities.
The wind, when it returned,
carried only echoes~
not of voices,
but of the absence
that gnawed louder than their hunger.
What grew first were the questions,
twisted as the scorched trees,
bent toward a sun
that no longer recognized them.
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