Brother Ike

Little brother Gus flailed his arms in the sea
Tossing salt water in spits of anger
At what he could have been, 
But he missed the mark,
Failed to obliterate Katrina’s memory
And he sulked away,
Irate that all he managed to do
Was come up second fiddle

But then Ike came knocking.

What he lacked in power,
He made up for in sheer size
As he dragged his feet across the water
Eyeing the shoreline like a bully, 
Taunting — you better run
‘cause you can’t hide!
Before finally picking his battleground
With a vengeance.

And in the night, Ike came knocking. 

He cast an ominous shadow 
And the mighty fell like bits of broken glass,
As the sea moved inland, unrelenting,
Lifting the dead from the ground
To float in the rinse-water 
Where Medusa washed her hair,
Leaving her snakes behind,
And the living stumbled in the dark.

When Ike came knocking.

Spitting corkscrews into the wind
He roared terror into the hearts
Of those left behind,
Stomping his feet in thundering fury,
Snapping trees like toothpicks
And sending fences flying
Before leaving his calling card scrawled
In bold handwriting on the wall …

Ike came knocking.



Janet Reid
september 2008


September 1, 2008, hurricane Gustav made land just east of the Texas/Louisiana border as a Category 2 hurricane while 
hurricane Ike was roaring in from the Atlantic.  On the morning of September 4 Ike was at its peak intensity of 145 mph
winds, the most intense storm of the 2008 season, and was at one point a Category 4 hurricane.  It came through the 
Caribbean on the heels of 3 recent hurricanes, (Fay, Gustav & Hanna) and on September 7, made land in Cuba as a 
Category 3, and headed into the Gulf of Mexico on September 9.  Ike's unusually large wind field caused a projected storm 
surge of a Category 4 height though the wind speeds were only that of a Category 2.  Ike made landfall at Galveston, Texas, 
on September 13 at 2:10am CDT, as a Category 2 hurricane with winds of 110 mph and Tropical storm and hurricane force 
winds extending 275 miles and 120 miles, respectively, from the center.  Ike is estimated to be the fourth costliest Atlantic 
hurricane and third costliest U.S. hurricane of all time, behind (1) Katrina (2005) and (2) Andrew (1992), and just ahead of 
(4) Wilma (2005) and (5) Charley (2004).