(A tornado in Alabama last year.)
Kanzen Sakura over at d’versepoets pub is presenting the Haibun Monday challenge. And it is about Fear. We all have them, and they are legion for most of us. Come read what makes the heart flutter and the stomach queasy. Thank you, Toni….your prompts always entice!
Lady Nyo
Haibun: Fear
Global Warming has brought significant changes to the South, and Atlanta is now nicknamed “Tornado Alley”. In the almost fifty years I have lived here, I have seen disturbing changes. My first acquaintance with a ‘tornado’ was when I heard what I thought was a tornado and I was in the bathtub. My now-ex-husband headed for the basement leaving me in the water. It turned out to be a train. There was a track back in the woods we didn’t know of.
One flattened our local park and was called ‘severe wind shear’. From the looks of it, it seemed like a tornado. Trees, hundred year old oaks flattened to the ground, an indeterminate path through the park, a warzone of defeated greenery.
I fear the heavy winds and rainstorms. I am powerless before them. The only way to save oneself is to head for the basement and cower with whatever lives down there. And of course this adds to the fear.
Winds begins to rise
Fear out runs common sense
The worms are safer
–
Jane Kohut-Bartels
Copyrighted, 2017
Tags: d'versepoets pub, Haibun: Fear', tornados, What do you fear?
Lady Nyo's Weblog 
April 17, 2017 at 7:22 pm
Spectacular haiku! And as an old engineer, I can tell you that wind shears can be more dangerous and destructive often times that tornadoes. I am smiling at you in the tub while your brave husband heads for the basement. I need to tell you sometime about being in college over Easter break and a tornado whipping through campus…LOLOLOL. Good form in this haibun. Excellent!
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April 17, 2017 at 7:28 pm
Ah, geez, thanks! LOL! What I am thinking about with haiku, is it is best when it is a bit ….off. LOL! Not a straight path to the obvious conclusion. LOL! Thank you, Toni. We just had a lovely shower, and that’s great because we have three sprinklers and I can’t find one damn one. LOL! Yeah, that was early in our 13 year marriage and it should have told me something about him….but I was really blind. And I want to hear about your story and the tornado. Here in Atlanta, many of us have some first hand experience with these things….you hide and your ears pop and I think that is part of it. Horrible stuff, these wind shears and tornadoes….but can’t do a thing to deter them.
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April 17, 2017 at 7:35 pm
I went to university in Nashville TN, right in the midst of the tornado trail. Several hit down and run through that town every day for a month, at least! I had decided to stay during spring break I actually was a freshman at the time and had a huge crush on another student and so….I was sitting on the side of the bed, getting up from a nap when I noticed a strange stillness in the air. then…I looked and coming straight at the dorm was a tornado. the train was running, my ears were popping and I went into full panic mode, running down the hall to the floor bathroom and…slipped on a puddle of water, slid and bounced and ended up with my hand caught in one of the toilets, the part that takes stuff out. fortunately the toilet was clean but I was fully naked (I refuse to sleep in clothes). I began to yell and realized I was alone in the dorm, that security had made their rounds and would not be back until 10 that night. I was stuck and naked. It grew dark. suddenly I heard a sound and began yelling. the security guard came running. saw me with my hand in the toilet and burst out laughing. Several hours later I was freed. the guard ran and got my robe from my room, bless his heart. but…seeing a tornado coming at you is….awesome.
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April 17, 2017 at 7:40 pm
LOL! I’m laughing my head off, but in horror, too. God, to be stuck in a toilet….or by a toilet…in a tornado. The Gods must hate you! LOL!
But the security guard was your savior. This story you much write up…and I don’t think any elaboration could top the facts of the matter. LOL!
Jesu! I’m keeping my clothes and shoes on during this tornado/thunderstorm season.
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April 17, 2017 at 7:41 pm
Against the elements we are more or less powerless. Nothing scarier. Worms, as you say, don’t even notice.
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April 17, 2017 at 7:43 pm
LOL. I still sleep naked regardless of the weather….but the robe is right to my hand.
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April 17, 2017 at 7:45 pm
It’s fascinating reading about everyone else’s fears and the different places we all live in. I’ve never experienced a tornado but I remember the UK’s big storm of 1987. I’ve just finished reading a detective thriller novel partly set in that storm. What a thing to do, though, leave you in the bath while he hid in the basement!
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April 17, 2017 at 7:45 pm
Yep, Jane. They are perhaps also safer. Deep down under. I just got two cats back after two nights missing. Easter meant lots of neighbors with their out of control grandchildren and this spooked my cats. They are dripping wet and have both climbed into my lap. I’ll be around tomorrow morning when I can read. Thanks, Jane.
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April 17, 2017 at 7:47 pm
LOL! Kim…I should have realized what a self-serving bastard he was then. It was a path that continued on right up to the end when he was dating my nurse…after I had surgery and was still in hospital. Surgery was to clear the way for a baby. Would that that train had run him over back then!
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April 17, 2017 at 7:50 pm
I hope so. Seven years ago, when I was on a running jag….I decided one night to run (in my back yard track…) naked…with just shoes. then I realized I had no where to attach the pedometer. LOL! A string around my waist did it. But I wondered about the neighbors just a bit. Never heard nothin’.
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April 17, 2017 at 8:07 pm
I’ve certainly enjoyed the “tornado exchange” here! I live in Indiana where they are frequent as well. Strangely, if one has no basement, the bathtub/bathroom is suggested, I believe, so it was safer than thought!
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April 17, 2017 at 8:08 pm
😊
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April 17, 2017 at 8:24 pm
See you tomorrow. Give the cats a hug from me 🙂
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April 17, 2017 at 8:54 pm
I’ve been through a few tornadoes in rural Indiana as a child. Once we rushed into the car and headed down the road with the tornado appearing to head straight toward the farm house. Then we saw it turn as if it were aiming for us in the car. My dad turned the car around and he raced us in the opposite direction. We watched the tornado cross the road near where we turned.
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April 17, 2017 at 9:17 pm
Loved reading this. Yeah, I would’ve been in the basement too, but wifey and I would’ve had a lesson-learned follow-up afterwards. 😉
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April 17, 2017 at 10:20 pm
Terrifying event and with this: a warzone of defeated greenery – even more depressing ~ Nature can be very nasty and so the best response is to hide and keep out of the way ~ Good one Jane ~
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April 17, 2017 at 10:24 pm
I’ve had some similar experiences, but with hurricanes. “Warzone of defeated greenery” is right!
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April 17, 2017 at 11:52 pm
With all the tornado warnings and threats (one just a couple of weeks ago) that I’ve been through, I’ve yet to see one and I’m much more afraid of a tornado than a hurricane. Hurricanes you have a lot of time to get out of their way…not so with tornadoes. I hope you will be kept safely out of their path, Jane. Oh, and was happy to see that Mr. Leave My Wife in Danger is now an ex!
Was horrified by Toni’s story of having her hand stuck in a toilet while naked…and with a tornado coming at her! Oh my gosh, you couldn’t make this stuff up!
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April 18, 2017 at 2:52 am
It’s funny to think about you and all the critters, (invited or not), all huddled in the basement. You framed a great picture of terror. Not funny at the time I’m sure
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April 18, 2017 at 5:35 am
Ah, yes.. this is one of the scary times.
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April 18, 2017 at 2:38 pm
HI Maria! Yes it is!
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April 18, 2017 at 2:38 pm
Nope, Waltermarks! Not funny at all…only in the looking bac.
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April 18, 2017 at 2:41 pm
I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry with Toni’s story. LOL! So I picked the first. Only Toni. LOL! And yes, I would rather have a hurricane than a tornado. And yes, mister leaveyourwife in danger was a real heel. And continued to be throughout the marriage…which he took to be a continuation of his damn mother doing for him. You stay safe, Gayle. The spring brings some real surprises.
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April 18, 2017 at 2:42 pm
Thanks, Grace. Hope you don’t have tornadoes in Canada. You have maurading moose! LOL!
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April 18, 2017 at 2:42 pm
Yep, Barry, but you can’t fix stupid and unconcerned. thanks for reading.
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April 18, 2017 at 2:46 pm
Frank this is the scariest story yet! Jesus! I remember about 15 years ago, traveling to Florida for a wedding and the thunderstorms overhead and the turbulence made me hide in the backseat floor of the car. The sky was something of a mad Gainsborough, but I was sure we were all going to die. Recently, my husband who was driving through this told me that he wondered too whether we would have survived. Horrible.
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April 18, 2017 at 2:48 pm
I don’t know, Bev. the bathroom doesn’t sound that safe, but perhaps it is the only choice around. And I always wonder if people survive in basements with all the material that falls in. You keep safe, Bev. And hope you do have a basement. I feel so bad for people living in trailers. Spring brings nasty weather and it is just starting.
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April 18, 2017 at 3:40 pm
Thank you, Rachel.
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April 18, 2017 at 4:55 pm
for sure, it’s a terrifying spectacle, especially up close
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April 19, 2017 at 11:58 am
I had to allow a wry smile at the ‘my now ex husband’ line. Perfect. Saved by the Tornado like Train ?
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April 19, 2017 at 4:48 pm
Oh Paul. Sometimes we marry too young and definitely the wrong person. that was just the first of the offenses. LOL! Lucky me, I met a man a year after the divorce and we have been married for 32 years. He wouldn’t leave me in the bathtub with an approaching tornado. Nope, he wouldn’t.
Thank you, Paul for reading and your comment. We learn in life or we are miserable.
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