Tornado

Over the weekend Minnesota saw four tornados wreak damage in rural areas, but, thankfully, there were no injuries.

The storms reminded me of a cyclone that ripped through north Minneapolis not so many years ago. It pummeled a part of the city that could least afford it.



Tornado


in that part of town
with gap-toothed houses, maws
boarded shut

For Sale and Foreclosed signs
creaking on too many blocks.

A liquor store looted even as the funnel
bullied its way down the street

barging into Cleo's hastily emptied Cafe
spintering tables into toothpicks

before bumping into a barbershop
ancient as its owner, sweeping up clippings

then ripped off the roof of a nearby clinic
exposing its cache of drugs like a favor

to marauders, one bad boy to another,
leaving in its wake intensified pressure

with one-room options
pluck and gutted in that part of town.



Marilyn Aschoff Mellor