WOMEN’S BATHROOM WAITING LINE

(Hurricane Milton shelter: social media at its best)

 

{Scroll down for a YouTube video of Bob Dylan’s Shelter From the Storm}

 

Hurricane shelter trauma

Especially for one with autism

Is real

Yet there is something

So Social Media-like

And in the long hours of

Day and night

Waiting for the hurricane to

Make landfall

And possibly wreck our lives

Forever

I looked forward to standing

In that line

And talking to the women

Old and young

As we tried to ignore

That basic urge to pee

The waiting line a newsbreak

From hours of sitting on concrete floors

And a source of connection

 

Someone said there were 1800

Shelter seekers here at River Ridge HS

Hurricane Milton chasing after

Hurricane Helene

Who had wrecked lives

Merely two weeks earlier

Someone said there would be

No dinner that night, only snacks

Someone said the storm would miss us

I met someone who, like me, was

Born and raised in Philly

Someone asked if I had worked in

Financial Aid at PHCC

And we talked because

I recognized her as a student

Even though it had been 14 years ago

Most of all, our dogs were sheltered

In the school gym

And we got to visit and feed and play

With our beloved family members

Yet all agreed there should be

More bathrooms for women

More staff* for all the evacuees

More food and my vote, more coffee

I’d even volunteer to brew it all day!

 

But no question,

The staff was wonderful

Patient, polite, overworked

In the middle of the night

A Pasco sheriff’s deputy

Saw me limping to the bathroom

And returned with a cane

To lessen my pain

Other deputies tirelessly

Helped me navigate the campus

In pouring rain

And yes, Bob Dylan’s song

Shelter from the storm

Played in my head

Like a psalm of hope

Thank you to all I met

And may this be the

Last cyclone of the season…

*Staff includes the wonderful students who dragged our belongings and pets on wagons to our assigned rooms

 

© 2024 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)

IMAGE: Hurricane Milton from Int. Space Station 10-8-24

 

https://youtu.be/IzaXlq1Pdmk  Bob Dylan, Shelter From the Storm