Day four without power.

Thank God for firewood
and bottled water…
even for Spam
(don't bother about expiration dates)
and  final slices of bread
spread with strawberry jam.

Thank God for blankets
and that awful day-glow orange afghan
crocheted by my mother decades ago,
that goes with nothing
and stayed hidden in storage,
fulfilling its destiny at last
in the cold, encroaching night.

Thank God for Sterno
and the partially scrambled eggs
and warm tea eaked out of the final flames
of its aging gel.

Thank God for each other,
willing to view this as yet another adventure
and a rare, gracious disconnection
from the mad world beyond.

Text and image © 2012 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.