Poetic Bloomings Puzzel Pieces Prompt

Helen’s Boast

 

HELEN sits at her desk

DRAWING ink landscapes.

Her eyes a PURE PERIWINKLE blue

sparkle as we beg her

to tell us the story.

 

Helen always began

with a LAUGH and this BOAST,

“The hail was big as BRUSSEL SPROUTS

as I pedaled my BICYCLE down SHANNON CREEK ROAD

about SEVEN on a summer evening in 1977.

 

“I knew the gray clouds,

dark, mean and low,

could bring a storm as bad

as any of the ones which caused

the other two JOHNSTOWN FLOODS.

 

 “My muscles moved strong

and rhythmic like a PANTHER,

racing against the storm.

The ice balls pummeled me,

then came the hammering rain.

 

“My friends JENNIFER and SYDNEY

built their cabin unwittingly

in the lowlands by the river.

Halfway there I had to abandon my bike

and run along the flooded road.

 

“I made it to the cabin as the water

reached their porch step.

I banged on the door.

They came out wondering

if I had gone mad.

 

“We fled in their Chevy.

Eighty-six lives were lost that night.

But not eighty-eight.

Your grandparents made it.”

“Thanks!” we say and run off to play.