Naydeen and Jordy, pre-service teachers from Oklahoma, issued a mind-twisting prompt today to get us thinking back on our dreams. The one I share below happened years ago and still haunts me today whenever I think about it. I can still see it vividly, and it was on my mind last night as storms swept through our area. I’ve often wondered if the woman in the dream was my mother, who was succumbing to Parkinson’s Disease and my nightmare told the story from a different perspective.

Stormy Nights

The news footage
is surreal.
A woman
in her thirties
with a knee-length
dress and a pinafore
has her hands
over her face
crying desperately
accepting her fate.
The tornado swirls
voraciously
in the distance
coming for her
as the reporter
narrates the horror
like a nature
documentary.
I wonder:
Why doesn’t she run?
Why doesn’t she escape?
There is time to try!
She walks in a daze
waiting for it
to devour her
in her
aimless pathway
grievous wanderings
it lassos
her ankle
pulling her in
she stair-steps
to heaven
waving through
blinding tears
to those she leaves
behind.