A Guest Poet Prophesies, and My Replies

Butterflies Make Me Wish
(or: "The Only Reason on Earth to Spend a Day in Houston")
Morphos Butterfly
Hovering above the Orinoco River Delta
Flapped its wings furiously
Rippling the air around it
Sending a new hapless
Fly careening
Into the moss in front of Centipede
It struggled madly & hopelessly in her mandibles
As Centipede elongated & undulated herself
Until Tarantula shot forth from under a log
Seizing and poisoning Centipede
This motion drew the attention of Iguana
Who snatched Tarantula with pink, sticky tongue
Giving his position away
To Boa on the low-hanging branch above
She hurled herself from the tree
Landing on the ground with a thud
En-coiling Iguana
Spooking many Tapa
Sending them scurrying across
The forest floor, grunting and squealing
Agitating Howler Monkeys above
Into hoots, howls, & hurtles
Through the canopy
Violently rattling the tree-tops
Sending many Bird People
Flying in panic
Providing the final impetus
That prodded a misty steaming bubble
Of moisture-laden air upward
Entraining more buoyant air beneath and beside
Pushing inexorably skyward-free convection
Building a cumulus cloud
Of condensing Caribbean-Atlantic moisture
That burst latent heat into
This column of ascending air
Building and sculpting that cloud
Into cumulonimbus-an exquisite cell
With increasingly powerful updrafts and downdrafts
That unleashed drenching downpours, lightning, and
Gusty, rain-cooled winds which
Burrowed under the surrounding
Tropical maritime air mass
Lifting yet more of it
And more of it-so juicy and free of gravity
So much more latent heat exploding
Wholesale upward acceleration
(The Ocean loves the Sky-giving)
Creating a beautifully-structured complex
Of interdependent tropical thunderstorm cells
That drifted out above the warm salt soup teeming with life
So she fed this creature still more life-giving vapor
As the southerly winds on the west side
Of the Bermuda-Azores High-Pressure Ridge
Steered the growing, organizing convective system
North across the Caribbean and into
The western Gulf of Mexico
The rapid, continuous latent heat release
From widespread abundant condensation and
Precipitation
Further intensified the updrafts and
Subsequent entrainment
Forging a shallow low-pressure area
Spinning with increasing Coriolis Effect
Driving the winds around and inward
Forcing more air to rise-the Cycle ensues
Evolving into Force 5 Hurricane
(The Sky loves the Ocean-giving)
Who slams into Houston, Texas
Bombarding that mistake
With raging winds, flooding rains, tornadoes, and storm surges
Wilderness on the Move
Destroying the city's financial district
(Including and especially Maxxam Corp. HQ)
Making international news
Rocking the global "economy"
Scaring hell out of suits the world over
And inspiring me to wish
That I could have experienced it all
First hand.

The Radikal Weatherman Fall, 2004


Veritably, it is prophesy
Given to you by Thomas True
He could tell no lie
And neither could a butterfly



Sir Thomas, of Erceldun
Was a historical human man
Ferried by the Faerie Queene
Into that nether Land
To serve her six years and one
And when that contract done
Returned him to here did she
'Neath his Hawthorne tree
With gift of poem and prophesy
A gift or a curse, why
If you could tell no lie?
And every poem you told came true?
Your lament will equal Thomas' rue.