in case of............

FIRE:
most of us assumed that we would be
consumed by passion or perhaps
by love
but all of that begs to be tamed and maybe
in the same house we are burning
we can also find warmth. 

FLASH FLOODING:
we were born from the water,
before we had legs we had fins,
gills even
so don't hold your breath.
in a sense, this is homecoming.

TORNADO:
take your pulse, darling
is your heart racing? is your mind?
remember your childhood tales;
when the big bad wolf came he blew down
two houses before one could stand tall.
turn your bones into bricks; wait.

EARTHQUAKE:
there's always something under the surface
eventually it will bubble up through the cracks
and tear apart the ground underneath 
so that it seems to swallow you whole;
but magma sees the sun again when bursting from a volcano,
so perhaps so can you.

VOLCANIC ERRUPTION:
i'm screaming and
no one in pompeii can hear 
we're all choking on ash 
drinking down lava like red wine
but my story will not be smothered
it taught you to read smoke signals for help.

BLIZZARD: 
if you get too cold eventually you
can no longer feel your fingers.
the tragedy of youth preserved by the freezing 
like the mammoths before us
we will always be weaker in hindsight,
so we must find strength in our losses. 

HURRICANE:
it's not true what is said
about things only having power if you give it to them
but
conquer your fears by first naming them, 
so that in that way, perhaps you can grow to 
see them as an old friend.

ICE ON ROADS:
they always said steer into the skid
however,
is that the same thing as
owning your action
or accepting your fate?