Still Resolute

He was too fat. His girlfriend
And her parents were concerned.
He wasn’t very mobile,

So they thought of low-stress ways
To get him to exercise.
For his birthday they gave him

A croquet set, which he found
Disappointing. He got out
Of playing when a storm front

Ahead of a hurricane
Rolled into Alabama,
Turning trees to head-bangers.

He’d just started a new job.
He was feeling overwhelmed.
He sat at his girlfriend’s house

That afternoon, not moving,
Too close to a large window,
Watching the storm in the trees,

That peculiar yellowish,
Grey-green cast to the daylight
As branches snapped back and forth,

And he thought of an old friend
Who might already have died.
He resolved he wouldn’t try

Anymore, he would just be,
And he was calm in the storm,
Behind his window at least.