Proper 16 Year Two, Thursday

[Psalm 18, Part One]

FOR NOAH'S FAMILY, ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF HURRICANE KATRINA

Whose huge hand is this which struck the face
of the waters like the surface of a drum,
which hammers the sea like a meteoric fist
and pulls the earth's supports from under it
like some rage-blinded Samson in his chains?

It's not just that so many people drowned
when the firmament was shattered like a glass
and the swells below leapt up to meet the rains;
It's that those few who found themselves at the last
possible moment

snatched from their roofs and fields and from the flood
as by some awful, arbitrary hand:
What could they do? To see their neighbors gone
with all their brothels and convenience stores,
and find themselves safe in that fiery grasp?

Well, what could they do? What else but hold
on to the One who thundered from the clouds
as if to the wings of life itself, to grip
the back of the flaming lion by its mane
and pray it doesn't roar.