I answer to no one but Poseidon

by Donna Shultz

I am a hurricane. They have named me Dorian. It comes from the Greek word doron, meaning gift. I am no gift. My sites are set on the Florida Peninsula. Perhaps beyond.

I wasn’t born into this as powerful as I am now, I had to earn it. I had to work my way up to it. I was born a meager nothing of a wave off the coast of my conception in Africa. I fought through the Sahara’s dust, nursed on warm water, was spun and churned by wind and clouds, grew to the strength of tropical storm. I painstakingly climbed my way up the ranks of the Cats to the top.

Look at me. I keep my inner core tight, well protected and well defined. I flex it as a well-honed muscle, as an elite athlete flexes muscle. I keep it surrounded with strong and organized outer walls, I shed my old walls as a snake sheds its old skin.

I stay my course, my intensions clear, sharp, and single minded. Eye on the prize. I know my intentions. Time will reveal them. I wobble north and then south. I speed up and slow down. I am unpredictable. I will claim what I will.

I slow to a crawl, inch by inch mile by mile, slower, slower, I take my time, building my strength, savoring my strength, I reach tendrils down, down, into the power house of the beautiful deadly sea. I take nourishment from the warm waters of the gulf stream giving me ample fuel, feeding, feeding for my never-ending quench for power. {I have said I am unpredictable}.

The depths of the ocean, is not the only place I feed my soul. I gain strength from the stink of fear, emanating off people, people who scatter like roaches, scurrying about mindlessly grabbing, hoarding, fighting over, their precious supplies, supplies they believe will keep them safe from me. A fool’s errand.

They can never be safe from me.

I play cat and mouse with the people “watching” me, I watch them back just as intently, I point my tendrils to the south, then bait and switch turning north, catching the masses unawares.

I herald my approach over land with thunderous claps, and bolts of lightning.

I bring torrential rain with the winds drilling it horizontal.

I howl with glee in my destruction, and delight in its devastation.

I unabashedly flaunt my power. I relentlessly pound on everything below me. Exhilarated, I engage with the sea, and together we wreak havoc. This…Is…My…Time.

I see fear in the eyes of people as I glare down at them.

I dare those below me to look into my eye, to see the darkness I harbor within my soul.

I will not despair even as my wrath weakens, my strength weakens, and the voice of my winds still as a snuffed-out candle. My legacy lives on. I stand amongst the deadliest of my kind.

We answer to no one but Poseidon.