FrankenStorm 2012

Call it a miracle or
simply call it luck
I was one
of the fortunate few
to escape the wrath of
FrankenStorm
relatively intact
none the worse for wear
my house is still standing
and I am still of
sound body and mind
ten fingers and ten toes
torso
head
arms and legs
all where they should be
and although I have my share
of aches and pains
diabetes and other
ailments too numerous
to recite
I was able to rise up
out of my bed
this morning and
find my way to work
as though
FrankenStorm
had never come to town
and I was not alone
neighbors
students
bus drivers
firemen
cops
all went about their
daily routines
as if the second storm
of the century
(Katrina being the first)
had been nothing more
than just another
rainy windy day


(albeit with a lot
of collateral damage
to those to our north and south
who were not as fortunate as we)

Perhaps we have survivor’s guilt
why were we spared while
others were seemingly
so severely punished
and made to suffer
such terrible deprivations
there but for the
grace of G-d
go we all

I was sick
with the Flu the whole time
that Hurricane Sandy
aka FrankenStorm
was wrecking the city
that I have grown to love                                                                                        
and I was having
fits of
body shaking coughing spells
along with bouts of
fever and
chills
my eyes were bleary
and my nose was stuffed
and it was hard to keep on
breathing regardless of
whether I was awake or asleep
and my back
would go into spasm
with every hacking cough
in addition
I have had a groin pull injury
for the past several weeks
that makes the usually
simple routine
of getting in and out
of an arm chair into
a pain filled ordeal
so piercing that
it can bring tears to my eyes
each and every time I try
getting up to stand
on my own two feet
this is a very humbling
state of affairs
for a man
who has always
considered himself
to be
rightly or wrongly
something of an athlete

I make this confession
not just for the benefit of my soul
but in order to
better understand why?

Why?

Is it because
I think that I have some
special mission in life
that requires that I
persevere against all odds?

Is it because
my jewish peasant
fish mongering
gypsy genes
demand survival
for survivals’ own sake
in spite of all the
vagaries of life?

In my career as a
human being
I have killed
many cockroaches
and many mosquitoes
and thousands of flies
and every one of them
wanted to live
struggled to live
hiding
dodging
scattering
fleeing
to get away
to somehow find a way
to escape
my merciless vengeance
(mostly to no avail)
as I happily scattered their
useless guts
by stomping them to death
or by swatting them with
a folded newspaper or
other improvised implement of
insect destruction

When FrankenStorm came to town
I too instinctively hunkered down
(move over mr. cockroach
I found this spot first!)

I guess
when push finally
comes to shove
we are all just like
our fellow cockroaches
when it comes to
trying to save
our own skins!

jhmarkowitz
Philadelphia, Pa. 2012