The storm bringing trouble to Florida
is so vast that steady winds toss
the treetops here, three states away.
Sipping my tea I listen to the leaves
beat against each other
like the whispering of a vast crowd.
I wonder how soon the rain will come
and think about friends in Asheville
where flood warnings are in force.
Every year the storms are worse.
A sudden gust, and all the branches
rise in the air, dry leaves blow
across my feet. I can hear a catbird
mewling in the bushes.
—
Ralph Earle is the author of Everything You Love Is New (Redhawk, 2024) and The Way the Rain Works (Sable Books, 2015). A New England native, he has lived in North Carolina for 40 years. Ralph has worked as a poetry teacher, writer, editor, bookstore proprietor, technical writer, and website designer. Thrice nominated for the Pushcart Prize, his poems have appeared in The Sun, Tar River Poetry, The Carolina Quarterly, Sufi Journal, and elsewhere.
