Disaster under the Shimmers

Feature Post under The Bird on Fire‘s Natural Disaster theme

By 8th-Grade Blogger Soleil Antle 

Most people associate snow with Christmas, the joyful times when families come together. People like the thought of snow, until they’ve lived weeks through the natural disaster of “Snowmageddon.” In Newfoundland in 2020, ten feet of snow fell. It was January. I was trapped. This poem describes the tragic moments of being locked in your house for what feels like forever during an enormous blizzard. 

Snowmageddon:

Within the clouds of grey
Plummets down a blizzard blue. 
The white mushy powder
Reflecting off me and you. 

From my window, I see what looks like a dream– 
Until that turns into a nightmare
Of the snow consuming me.

It makes its descent from the sky above,
Harsher this time as the rain comes.
Shards of ice hang from the trees 
As the sheets of white blind me. 
The cold penetrates my head and cheeks;
the skin on my nose turns red like a beet. 
My fingers tense in the abrupt climate,
One that deceived me for its delicate look.

Days off school, we’re locked inside:
Streets are blocked, due to the storm gone awry.
In front of my door stands the towering block
Of the snow trapping my exit, to the top.

Days get longer; we’ve run out of food–
The sun is visible, but not starting a brew.
The frigid cold trumps the heat
As the animals slumber in their sleep.

This blizzard is out of control.
Scared now I have nowhere to go.
My house a bunker, the only shelter I have;
The snow starts dripping through the cracks. 

I was nine years old when Snowmageddon occurred. I remember it as fun at first. Being able to skip school for so long was exciting, until our food supply ran low and my parents started stressing. 

   

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/19/snowmageddon-cleanup-begins-after-record-newfoundland-storm