Providence by Natasha Trethewey
What's left is footage: the hours before
Camille, 1969—hurricane
parties, palm trees leaning
in the wind,
fronds blown back,
a woman's hair. Then after:
the vacant lots,
boats washed ashore, a swamp
where graves had been. I recall
how we huddled all night in our small house,
moving between rooms,
emptying pots filled with rain.
The next day, our house—
on its cinderblocks—seemed to float
in the flooded yard: no foundation
beneath us, nothing I could see
tying us to the land.
In the water, our reflection
trembled,
disappeared
when I bent to touch it. Art by Clarice Beckett
Recommended listening: Podcast: Starving Artist
Links of the Day: A Graphic Designer Redesigns a Movie Poster, Every Day Color Palettes of The New Yorker Doodling With A Needle and Thread