And I watch!

And I watch!

I watch homes carry

away by flood,

I watch thousands of

automobiles submerge

in salty water,

I watch roads wash

away,

bridges collapse

under torrential

rainfall.

I watch traffic lights

fall off from metal

poles,

telephone poles

and electric pylons

tumble by violent wind.

I watch public buildings

over taken by water,

hospitals, medical facilities

schools, libraries, shopping

malls sack by furious flood.

I watch people scrambling

for safety,

as flood encircles

communities,

emergency workers-

first responders-

overwhelm with demands.

I watch millions go without

light, water, and telephone

services for days;

I watch as daily activities

paralyzed from community to

community.

I watch as nature turns violent,

Harvey races over Atlantic at

130-mile-per-hour,

I watch between 30 and 51.88

inches of rainfall,

highest in record of continental

US.

I watch violent wind

winds out thirty-eight souls,

bad weather treats people

without pity;

I watch as families separated,

husband heads north,

wife to south,

kids between traumatized

parents.

I watch as material wealth,

documents, and valuables

float on water,

no one to rescue them,

I watch as materials become

Immaterial.

I watch people become trap

on top roof, high-rise buildings,

I watch as man’s inventions and

technology turn inadequate

before enraged nature.

Then I know-man is

but a puny before nature’s

gigantic power,

then I realize man is nothing

before natural phenomena,

then I understand man only

impacts,

if nature allows.

Then I remember-

when nature is incensed,

everything on pathway-

it destroys,

then I know-nature rules

over man,

not man over nature.