Moving Midwest to Teach

by Heather McHugh

A tornado is an education.
It points things out,
wipes things out.
It speaks without hearing.
It is respected
in the circles in which it moves.
It divides form from content
and takes away lives.
Those who survive it
do so in graves. Who do not
are buried in the gravy
air, lying even
high in the imagination and giving
up meat. Love

is an education.
I am coming to take you
by storm. I warn you. You will go down.

 

Heather McHugh has published in the New Yorker, The American Review and other places. She has a book due out from Brazilier. (Fall 1974)