Hurricane

Into every avatar’s life a little rain must fall - even a Second Life where you have to seed the clouds yourself.  Those who know me will not be surprised to hear that the little rain dance I did a few months ago resulted in a Category 5 hurricane with emotional speeds exceeding 155 mph. 

The strength and duration of the storm were quite a shock, especially since I was the one holding the umbrella during the initial downpour.  By the time the winds died and the skies cleared, the landscape of my Second Life was flattened – full of soggy, unrecognizable debris.

As you might imagine, the clean up was slow and arduous.  But since I don’t believe in coincidences, I knew a good hard look at the origins of my storm was in order.

I won’t bore you with the details.  It’s enough to say that warm moist air, from an ocean of misplaced need, was condensed by cooler, clearer air into swirling clouds and driving rain.  If I had never found the eye – that still, gardenia-scented center where ich liebe dich whispered in my dreams– I would have been fine.  But as Linda Pastan put it so well in her poem Circe:

"To be the other woman
is to be a season
that is always about to end,
when the air is flowered
with jasmine and peach,
and the weather day after day
is flawless,
and the forecast
is hurricane.”

The forecast was always hurricane - I just chose to ignore the warnings.

Comments

[Verde Otaared]

Sorry you had to go through this Jena. However you have turned your emotional anguish into beautiful imagery. During one of the most tumultuous times in my life (rl) I wrote a poem comparing the experience to an earthquake. Do we liken relationship traumas to natural disasters because we have no control? Certainly we have no control over others' experience of us.

Earthquake

My life is going to change again
I know it
And my mind knows it
Of course
A change like so many before
Another day
A sunrise
A rainstorm
A scar
Or, perhaps,
A caress
She knows it
Sees it for what it is
Another event
Life experience
Nothing less
Nothing more

My life is going to change again
I feel it
And my heart feels it
A small
Tremor, and a deep panic
Tells that another change
A crashing
A shaking
A destroying
Earthquake
Will blow apart
This small, tidy pile
She has made
From the shattered
Fragments
Left after
The change before

[Jenaia]

Thank you for the kind words Verde. It's good to know that this piece speaks to others. I hadn't really thought about it, but you're right. We don't have control over how others see us, and that's scary - at least to me.

I enjoyed your poem, though having lived through several large earthquakes I'm not keen to have my tidy little pile shaken again ;-). Thanks so much for sharing.

In Love and Light,
Jenaia