The Fujiwhara Effect by Jennifer Shneiderman

The Fujiwhara Effect

sounds elegant off the tongue

belying the danger

double hurricanes collide

rotating monsters of infinity

working in tandem

shifting storms off course.

Sea temperatures rise

once-innocent wispy swirls

gain strength and momentum 

nervous eyes watch a capricious path

siblings of destruction

making landfall1

the surge arrives.

We gaze at one another

each in the eye 

of a separate storm.

We will withstand the winds

Watch the sea retreat 

Pick up the planks

Pluck rooftop survivors

Build a better world.

The Fujiwhara Effect 

sounds elegant off the tongue. 

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Jennifer Shneiderman is a landlady and a writer living in Los Angeles. Her work has appeared in many publications, including Indolent Book’s HIV Here and Now, The Rubbertop Review, Writers Resist, Trouvaille Review and Variant Literature. She received an Honorable Mention in the Laura Riding Jackson Foundation 2020 Poetry Contest.