This Year

How are your doors holding up?
Has anything blown them off yet?

Some folks saw theirs take flight
a long time ago — centuries ago, in fact,

which doesn’t change
how much of a typhoon this is:

in a high wind such as this,
doors and roofs fly so easily.

So many of us are now exposed and afraid
that the structures won’t hold.

So many of us long exposed are excited
that walls are beginning to buckle. 

Of course, you could just decide
to go out and live in it. You could accept

that your hair will be messy
and your eyes will sting

for as long as you live. You could…
or you could shelter in place

and plan to rebuild. How 
are your doors, your roofs, your walls?

Do you have the tools you need,
do you have the patience to stand in this wind?

There’s some joy in having
such choices to make. It’s not like

they aren’t the same choices
that have always been laid before us,

but some of us have had stronger walls
than others. Some of us have never had to think

about our doors at all.  Some of us
never even knew they were there

until the wind picked up and we saw them
unhinge and begin to rise.