Hurricane Bob heading for New England (1991)

In August 1991, Hurricane Bob roared through the Merrimack Valley in synch with an attempted coup in the USSR that eventually led to the Soviet Union’s downfall. I was at my desk listening to news and writing in my notebook. I later published “Haiku for the Hurricane Coup,” a collection of related three-line compositions. Following are a few of them.—PM

.

Gorbachev under arrest.

Fill the bathtub

with clean water.

.

Eastport to Block

Island—

a sloop torn from moorings.

.

Talk about a flood.

I still fly

my mother’s curtains.

.

Live wires—

a man

hit by plate glass.

.

Boris Yeltsin climbed

a red tank

to yell back.

.

Nobody lasts—

the ground

can hold plenty of water.

.

The white dish spins.

I keep looking

for my neighbor’s cat.

.

—Paul Marion (c) 1995