The streets are full, the highways are flooded
Ronnie K. Stephens

Shawn has seen hurricanes. He tells his classmate this
huddled under a desk. Got him third at last year’s
Science Fair. The trick is the bottle, he says.
Bobby knows this, but he does not say so.

Shawn explains that some were never meant to hold
that kind of power. Bobby’s grandfather was
Creole and like the old cliché he never learned
to swim. Shawn was two years old when Ike

wrote that he sometimes punched Tina to the ground
without thinking. He is too young to understand
irony. But some lessons come early. Bobby knows this,
but he does not say so. He will wait until the waves

break against the schoolhouse.


—First appeared in DASH Literary Journal

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