Snap Shot of a Tornado

View a perfect suburban neighborhood
with well kept streets and manicured lawns,
Home Depot, Wall Mart and Costco, 
strategically placed in malls throughout town,

an elementary school with brightly colored
equipment, not too far from a middle school,
surrounding a high school with athletic fields.

The quiet before the storm then 
thunder and lightning followed by that awful 
sound of high winds barreling through town 
like a drunken monster tossing everything 
in its path with no regard for anything, 

leaving a trail of broken homes, 
terror on the faces of survivors
as they scramble to locate loved ones
crushed under the debris. 

The quiet of their perfect lives 
dismantled in minutes, losses of all kinds, 
important files, photographs, antiques 
now scattered across the mid west plains.

Prayers for those who suffer now.