As of this posting, around midnight on January 6, the City of Richmond is still under a boil advisory due to storm-related power failure impacting the city's reservoir system. While some residents and locales are without water altogether, those who do still have running water are asked to use it sparingly. For details about safe and unsafe use of water under a boil advisory, check the Virginia Department of Health website here. Take care out there!  

*This poem is another Tupelo Press 30/30 draft--read along on the journey here, or help sponsor my daily writing this month & support the beautiful work Tupelo does, here!

The shape of water

tonight is hollow, emaciated,
a cold city boiling, 
the storms they promised having come, 
 
gone, come again, and left us,
like the little orange cat
that skits round 
 
late at night, 
washed out & thirsty. 
The neighbor’s child knocks 
 
snow from my car with a mittenless hand,  
sucks a cold mouthful as they move on down the still-
slick street, laden with the heaviness of rumor. 
 
The corner store does a roaring business 
in pallets and pallets of Deer Park. The local kennel 
takes to Instagram, asking for bottled donations 
 
to clean out their pens. 
A new mayor is splashed on every screen 
before he can even be publicly sworn in. Across the city, 
 
cafes are closing their doors. Libraries 
remain locked, public drinking fountains silent, 
their quiet like a prayer
 
to city workers who’ve never known 
what it’s like to be prayed to.
And faith, 
 
faith is a luxury 
we find ourselves begging for a drop of, 
every one of us.