Another Oklahoma Day

Another Oklahoma Day  

It’s just another Oklahoma day,
the blazing sun is dropping low.
The crops are wilting in the fields,
the ominous west wind blows.

Relentless heat is a wall of fire,
draining the life out of my veins.
My lungs struggle to take in fresh air,
bones and muscles racked with pain.

Tired eyes turn skyward, pray for rain,
let it flood the plains and meadows brown.
End this plague and quench this thirst.
Lord, let your grace come tumbling down.

As if on cue, the sky begins to darken,
lightning flickers behind brewing clouds.
Thunder crashes, rattling the windows
as twilight casts its dreadful shroud.

The winds shriek throughout the night,
with a terrifying freight train sound.
The morning sun rises, illuminating
broken wings scattered on the ground.

Take me from this God-forsaken place,
where stormy weather is here to stay.
This red clay prison is breaking me,
but it’s just another Oklahoma day.

Colleen Keller Breuning © 2023
June 16, 2023

Hello! We are finally getting some rain this week after a month of drought in Northern Virginia. There were thunderstorm warnings last night, but I only heard a little thunder. I’m actually craving a nice summer thunderstorm – but please spare the power outage, haha!!

For some reason, the topic of stormy weather got me to thinking of the years I lived in Oklahoma back in the 1980’s. I was working for Arthur Andersen & Company, a wonderful job where I made many lifetime friends and also where I met Dan. However, it was also a very sad, traumatic time in my life when I was being forced to make major changes and life decisions for Vince and myself.

I was reminded of the relentless Oklahoma heat that felt like it was sucking the life out of me. (But… it’s a dry heat LOL!) The storms were so very intense there! I do love a good thunderstorm, but there were quite a few tornado warnings that sent me running into the shelter of the bathtub with my pets as one passed over my house. I even got stuck in a tornado one night on Interstate 35 while driving home from my  college classes in Edmond. That was one of the scariest moments ever, to literally not be able to see a thing because the red dirt was pouring down in the dark and pounding the windshield like rain! I had to come to a complete stop on the interstate, and it is a miracle I did not get rear ended. Funny how you start remembering these things from 40 years ago…

After I left Oklahoma in 1986 with broken wings, I vowed I would NEVER go back. Well, never say never…. I did go back, in fact, to reunite with my good friends Joni, Donna, Janell and Dianne years later. We had quite a few meet-ups over the years, but the one to Oklahoma was personal and cathartic. It was very emotional touching down at Will Rogers Airport, and I felt unsteady at first coming back to a place where I’d experienced so much pain.  We stayed at a lovely bed & breakfast in Norman, had wonderful meals together, visited the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial and talked about the good old days. By then, Arthur Anderson had shut down, and many other things in the city had changed. But I had changed, too…. and I was grateful to revisit my past, purge the bad memories and walk the streets of a city that I once knew and loved.

Anyway, that’s my poem for the week. I have a birthday next week, and it occurs to me that I am who I am because of both the wonderful and difficult experiences I have had, the beautiful people I have met, and the different places I have lived. I truly believe that all of this has shaped my life and led me on an amazing path. And … I am eternally grateful for that! So, if you have been part of my life journey, I thank you and I love you! Have a wonderful weekend and Happy Juneteenth to all!

Xoxo Colleen

Ecrits Blogophilia Week 50.14 – Stormy Weather Ahead
Hard Bonus: Use an onomatopoeia (a word that sounds like the noise it describes) Crashes, racked, quench, tumbling
Easy Bonus: Incorporate the word plague