Hatches Battened

W.S. Merwin

Evening

I am strange here and often I am still trying
To finish something as the light is going
Occasionally as just now I think I see
Off to one side something passing at that time
Along the herded walls under the walnut trees
And I look up but it is only
Evening again the old hat without a head
How long will it be till he speaks when he passes?

It was a surprise of a storm.  Looking at the sky, it was hard to imagine the possibility of tornadoes.  I dropped Bryan off to work on a boat and headed back to our girl to get her ready for what might come.  As things often seem to, one bad thing follows another and the car air con went out, not just went out, but started blowing hot air.  I made it back to the marina but I will be going to the repair shop tomorrow instead of work.  Such are the trials and tribulations of sharing a car in a world set up for a car per person.  

In the lull before the storm I stowed and checked.  I battened the hatches.  It took a couple hours but the storm found its way south as it headed out to sea. Wet but not drenched, I found my way into the cabin and prepared to wait out the weather with our cat Milo, but otherwise alone.  This was not my first bit of weather on my own.  I'm pretty sure it won't be my last.  I am coming to learn about togetherness and apart in ways I never have before.  Sometimes it's harder than others.  Sometimes it leaves me a little melancholy, although I'm not sure why.  I figure it will unfold when the time is right, as things do.  So I worry a little, but leave it at that.  I may not be as evolved as I would like to be, but I'm trying and sometimes, I'm even succeeding.  

The Merwin poem is one of my favorites.  It captures this gloaming sense as the twilight tonight descends.