HURRICANE

All morning, warnings

for the East and South.

Not here,

in the middle of things,

where the signs

are less clear--

a certain pressure in the head,

restless animals and children--

and the storms are colder,

as silent and white

as we are,

smugly buttoned

into our comfortable

Midwestern

reserve.

LouAnn Shepard Muhm is a poet and teacher from northern Minnesota.  Her poems have appeared in Dust & Fire, The Talking Stick, North Coast Review, Alba, Red River Review, Eclectica, Poems Niederngasse, and CALYX. She currently serves as Poetry Editor at WomenWriters.net.  Her chapbook, Dear Immovable, was published in 2006 by Pudding House Press, and her full-length poetry collection Breaking the Glass  was published in May, 2008 by Loonfeather Press.