Carol Wierzbicki

Carol Wierzbicki (wierzbicki@hq.acm.org) has run numerous poetry reading

series in New York City and is widely published in little magazines including

Long Shot and Cafe Review. Her work with the Unbearables (an irreverent

group of poets) includes the Unbearables Assembling Magazines and the

anthology "Crimes of the Beats." She has edited "Stories from the

Infirmary," an anthology by and for people dealing with chronic illness,

forthcoming this summer from Upublish.com.

Thunderstorm

I can hear Slim Pickens, riding

toward the millennium on his

bucking bronco bomb.

I can hear them screaming down in

Times Square for the Back Street Boys.

I can't see the tip of the Chrysler Building

through the fog

but I can imagine

the New Year's ball dropping

on Chinese gymnast Sang Lan's foot.

Here in my almost-corner office

I enjoy a commanding view

of pre-apocalyptic Gotham skyline

while the Chrysler does her

dance of the seven veils.

As the famous high-school student

gunman once said: peekaboo!

Someone emailed me

asking if I was hiding under my

desk with grounding wires in my hands

to avoid being hit by the lightning.

Actually that advice makes a lot

of sense.

There's nothing to do today

but wait... wait...

Wait. I think I hear Slim now:

Eeeeee-hoooo!

Carol Wierzbicki 5/24/99 3:49 PM