shielded from torrential downpour I count each privilege
in the rain    the mailman with the bad knee runs up our

stairs to deliver corporate marketing I  sit    in my
comfort watching heavy mist float   float  off the parked

cars and   wonder as the sidewalk’s     sea level
rises    is this a flash flood?  then it lets up  when it

resumes intensity I wonder if this is hurricane weather
this is Pittsburgh   this is no hurricane though Laura

makes her journey up the Gulf Coast    another storm in
a sky of storms I observe      seemingly unlimited

(originally published in Poetica, Spring 2024)