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WHEN THE POWER GOES OUT

DAY 1:

The power is out…it’s kind of exciting…being at the mercy of the weather

We get to observe the power of nature…and spend some quality time together.

It’s true we have no power…we cannot take a shower…we cannot flush

but for once it’s OK to eat all the ice cream…before it turns to slush.

It sure is getting hot in here…but in the dark we can enjoy the sight

of how all our faces look so angelic…in the glow of the lantern’s light.

DAY 2:

We hardly slept at all…too hot…gee that hurricane was cruel

So we took a ride inside our car…it was the only place that’s cool.

We drove a little way down the road…but had to stop…alas…

We were in a line of traffic 3 blocks long…and no one was selling gas.

We forget about gas and returned home…then we thought: some ice will ease our woe…

Only to discover after walking a mile in the heat…the store sold out 3 hours ago.

So we walked back home…we tried to sleep…but we’re sweating from every pore…

And sweaty people don’t look as angelic in the lantern’s light today…

as they did the night before.

Day 3:

We wake up: still no power…no shower…we try to wash up in the sink…

Then we sniff the air and realize…our refrigerator’s starting to stink.

So we throw everything in the refrigerator away…and the power company…we start petitioning…

And here we realize we’d sell our children…for a little air conditioning.

We sweat through another day together…no sleep again tonight

And we don’t even recognize our faces in the glow of the lantern light.

DAY 4:

No power again this morning…our nerves are getting frayed…

Parents are saying words they never say…and their children are afraid.

We’ve tried to be a patient people…we’ve tried hard to conform…

But we’re not the same congenial people…we were before the storm.

No gas…no shower, still no ice…all we have to eat is stale bread.

We hear friends of ours have their power back…and we secretly wish them dead.

We see a linesman driving down our street…we know we need him now to live

We would offer him anything to stop and help…but we have nothing left to give.

Our lanterns have quit working…we’re in the dark…which we realize is okay…

because we really don’t want to remember how our family looks this way…

DAY 5:

All bets are off…we’re losing your mind…we’ve eaten all our snacks…

We look in the mirror and realize we’re the family from Mad Max.

We look around with crazed eyes at this place in which we dwell…

We use to think we lived in Heaven…but now we realize…it’s Hell.

We’re all mad, we’re all irritable, we’re all sweaty…we’ve never felt so low…

We’re definitely not the family we were 5 day ago…

We’ve lost all our religion…to hell with the Tao, and Buddah and Zen

And we never want to ever hear anyone say we need to HUNKER DOWN again!

We’ve all melted onto our floor …it’s as hot as the Amazon…

When our heads perk up…what’s that sound…the power is back on…

We dance together as a family… the power outage is done…

The air conditioning’s back on…it’s showers for everyone….

DAY 6

We wake up cool and comfortable…our life is poetry…not prose

We fill your refrigerator, hug each other…and head out to buy a generator ….

We hear there’s a sale today…at Lowes.