Eight days after Hurricane Michael made landfall in Florida on October 10, over 120,000  customers  in the Panhandle are without electricity. Here was my way of coping with Hurricane Irma in 2017 when I was without power. I wrote a  poem.

Power Struggle

My tunic hangs like a limp dish rag
My skin feels like tacky glue
Day four following Hurricane Irma’s visit
I stick my head in freezer every hour
Thankful for neighbor sharing generator
Insufferable 85 degrees at 9 p.m.

Last night the houses across the street
lit up like a Dickens Christmas village
I remain in the dark
I’ve been through this before
Hurricane Wilma left me powerless for two weeks
while I stared at the neighbors’ lights for seven days

I survived but maybe now I am climate challenged
Like moving from north to south
Your blood thins and you freeze in 50 degrees
Still I must tolerate this minor inconvenience
My mother slept outside during heat wave of 1936
Laura Ingalls lived in one room for six months of blizzards

Day five the teasing continues
All houses on my side of street have blazing light
I remain in the dark
My status is now designated “special case”
But I don’t want to be special
I just want simple pleasures

Hot showers, cold drinks
78 degrees during day and 72 degrees at night
Clean clothes, sparkling dishes, cool bed linens
I pray for relief, patience and expert line workers
On the seventh day you shall have power
And thank you, I do!

–By Linda A. Mohr

Honorable Mention in Electricity Challenge, Non-Resident
First published by Highland Park Poetry
2018 Poetry Challenge
Permission granted to republish

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