What I Dream Of For Me

 HURRICANE

Mary Oliver

It didn’t behave

Like anything you

Ever imagined. The wind

Tore at the the trees, the rain

Fell for days slant and hard. 

The back of the hand

To everything. I watched

The trees bow and their leaves fall

And crawl back into the earth. 

As though, that was that. 

This was one hurricane

I lived through, the other one

Was of a different sort, and

Lasted longer. Then 

I felt my own leaves giving up and

Falling. The back the hand to 

Everything. But listen now to what happened

To the actual trees

Toward the end of that summer they

Pushed new leaves from their stubbed limbs. 

It was the wrong season, yes, 

But they couldn't stop. They 

Looked like telephone poles and didn't 

Care. and after the leaves came

Blossoms. For some things

There are no wrong seasons. 

Which is what I dream of for me.