AFTER THE STORM

THREE POEMS BY ANDREA VASILE

After the Storm

Weight too much to hold
the great oak has no choice
but to shed its icy burden
and orchestrates the release

Tiny cymbals sound a warning
as twigs begin to fall 
Skimming across 
the ice-covered ground     

Wind signals the snare of a branch
to give in to its affliction
spearing the snow below 

Suddenly the pound
of the bass drums
long rolling thunder sends

Shards to spike the earth
And the conductor
heaves its wintery load
smashing its limb to the ground

The sun irradiant
through the encrusted tree
bows to a hope of warmth

Achieving stillness
Finding peace in the silence
After the storm

---

Safe

Underneath the pillars of steel and glass 
We stand 
Watching the encroaching fog
Blind our view of the evening sky

darker and heavier 
Attempting to dampen the warmth
We share
Powerless to see through the thick clouds
They release the storm as promised

Furious and harsh overhead
We watch 
Safe in wonderment 
Underneath the pillars of steel and glass

---

Shades of Blue

The gatepost wears the season
like a helmet 

and guards the untrodden path.
Snow covered branches hold heavily, 
the cold ground piles up.

One last berry entrenched awkwardly
In the ice, a forgotten ornament,

missed its opportunity to escape.

A moment in time between day and night,

before the winds
begin their ardent charge,

everything alights all shades of blue.
A sea of anticipation

from earth to sky, eerie illumination
captured by the giant oak

for a fleeting second,

intensifies the brilliance,
electrifies the air

and is released 
to the world
beyond the hedges.

---

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Growing up in Ottawa and New Jersey, Andrea is inspired by nature and the ever-changing city.
Andrea found success in Clevermag, Turbula, Jones Ave and Ascent Aspirations. Recently in The Basil O’Flaherty Feminist Voice, Event Horizon Literary Magazine Issue 9, Oddball Ezine, Mocking Owl Roost and receiving third prize from the poet laureate of Ottawa for I Am a Human Being. Work in Analogies& Allegories Literary Magazine and Panoplyzine, Ottawa’s Flo Literary Magainze and upcoming work in Block Party Magazine.
She finds our world changing in puzzling and curious ways and feels the need to speak out.