Once-in-a-Thousand-Years (Los Angeles, Feb. 2024) Feb. 27, 2024

the sun has just arrived

to see cars crushed and floating

houses pushed off foundations

down streets   over cliffs

the blood of rain

still rushing in rivers

down streets and left standing

in new ponds and puddles

a rare thousand-year pileup

of mud and broken trees

with a few gray clouds

lingering like guilty children

which scares young white clouds

on the scene who hurry for the open road

happy to play in the fresh air

of an empty blue highway