Short stories, poetry, haiku, expository and technical non-fiction. Report Cards and observations on writing. This began as my repository of exercises from the "What If?" self-help writers group at AOL. It has become more and less, since leaving AOL.

Wednesday, May 14

Power Outage


Power Outage

Sucking greedily for air not there,
silence descending like a blanket of snow.
No boom nor blast hearlds the lack,
just panic attack as mortality seeps.

Gone the hum of AC vibration over my head.
No whine of CPAP in my ear,
the hiss of exhalations silenced.
Wife, too, silently regards me above her breathing mask,
Now sucking greedily for air, mask discarded in disgust.

Two words her condemnation, disgust contorting normally placid features ...
"Fix it!" -- While the black monster of aphyxia ascends.
I will live another day.

First, the hop, jump, trip and fall
brief interlude to my shorts hiked above knees.
Check the cable at the wall.
Plug mates deeply with socket; no leakage there.

A trip into the house next reveals
they, too, are powerless.
Not surprising, only felines exude power,
the freezer stubbornly silent, ice maker motionless.

Back to my trailer, hovel, home,
I stare at the neighbors' home
for signs of electrical activity ... no air,
no cheerless housewife a slave to her range.

Firing up battery-powered gizmos,
soon the Internets beckon from DC heaven
summoning information,
Demco-style.

Alas, a map, clear delineation of our plight,
robbed of the exchange of electrons to drive
entertainment ridden visions of the rumors
that pass for "News" these days.

It is, indeed, a failure of power,
even her "sweet baaboo" cannot fix.
Despondancy. Depression. Hunger. Anger.
All on hold until the electrical genie returns.



That's how my morning started. I hope yours was better.

About Me

My photo
Well past (by at least a decade) the half century mark. One foot in the grave, the other on a banana peel at the rim of the abyss and the view from here is disconcerting. I am a former student, pearl diver, cook, truck driver, firefighter, EMT, CEO, Town Fire Warden, mechanic, oiler, marine engineer and computer whiz bang. Mostly I sleep these days in an aluminum tube. And So It Goes... I waste my time reading blogs and kvetching about the weather, playing with our Schipperke sidekick, Ignatz McGraw and waiting hand by foot upon my wife, the Queen of our Hovel, She Who Must Be Obeyed (SWMBO).