Flash Flood
Clark County, Nevada

hand raised to the windscreen she
points a finger north at the sky—
plum-dark clouds convene

desert air plummets in degrees
I am cold

Looks ugly. Pull off the road.

we squat in the Ford like toads in a pan
the sky a stadium of stampeding masses
this old woman grabs my hand

with a breath the storm moves overhead
snaps like starched sheets spread on a bed
Interstate 95’s traffic stands still

blurred cars stop in the road
for seventy-two minutes
we’re all in separate cells

holding our horses amid the pell mell

© Alexa Mergen
Harpers Ferry, West Virginia