September 27*

two days of hard wind, hard blue skies
everything swirling, swirling
          tree blown down, power out for 6 hours
          two kayakers
          headed for patos from lummi
          drown, boats in pieces
          probably never made it past
          the wild standing chop off village point

then four days of large calm
bright skies bright stars

          like taking a photo of stillness
          and living within it, without breathing

*Copyright 2010 by Luther Allen. This poem appears in The View from Lummi Island.
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photo by Todd Elsworth