For We Write Poems poetry prompt #195: Weather Report http://wewritepoems.wordpress.com/
Weathering Effects
She could sense what was coming.
Silence and brooding like dark clouds
out on the horizon brewing, stewing
up a storm.
Told herself that sensible people
don’t sit around waiting for high
winds, thunder and lightning. They
seek shelter from pelting rain.
Leaving wasn’t easy and thoughts
of a future made her stomach queasy.
Some would say she was a quitter,
running away instead of staying.
Remembered brother-in-law, that night
she’d finally broken down and spoken.
How he’d said that an occasional ‘slap’ might
be price paid for beautiful home and children.
Didn’t seem to know the rule about acceleration.
How soft breezes could become a howling tornado,
accompanied by torrential downpour, rendering
havoc on all those tender unprotected spaces.
Elizabeth Crawford 1/9/14
Notes: Yes, this is biographical and not what I intended to write about this morning. Memory has a way of slipping in and tripping ones pen toward unexpected paths. The image is a digital painting I started of a rainbow, but a friend turned it into something else.
Soul's Music 
Oh my friend. Leaving was not optional. Imagine anyone thinking the price of a beautiful home was accepting abuse. Too high a price. I made that same decision and I did suffer poverty. But freedom from oppression was more than worth it. I so relate to this poem. The images are beautiful too, both of them.
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So true that when you start to write, you just never know where the pen might take you. You were brave to be strong, no matter how queasy the future seemed at the time.
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I love your write! And thanks for the prompt!
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A brave poem, of which elements resonated with my own history. Your observation of the escalation of abuse makes it imperative to leave such a situation, despite the difficulties that ensue.
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A poem of this magnitude should not be left without comment, yet I find myself somewhat speechless. All that I’d want to say has been said. Perhaps just this: live long and happily, Elizabeth.
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Whenever I read your poem, my mind is jumbling with thoughts. Leaving a situation like that is never easy…it can be like walking into the wind. Whatever it is, I wish the person in question the best.
-Nicole
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Sometimes the most terrible storms usher out the trash and bring out beautiful skies. Heartbreaking, but strong!
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Elizabeth, love the final verse. The whole poem is special, as is all you write.
Pamela
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