"Tornado Imagined from Far Away"

"Up from the south it came, out of thewest, at a diagonal,fifty miles in its full course,once it was done-and in its body length, eachtime it touched down, from a mile longto twenty miles. "All we could seewas a lot of gray and stuff." "It was likea train, but much louder." "All we saw was thiswhite wall of water, if you will.""

"Witnesses reported funnelclouds setting down eleven times, likeanteater noses looking for something,or a grayish teat growing downto search out and eat,but of course it was just cold and heat,wet and dry, wind, counter-clockwise force. One lifeended, within a collapsed home,curled around her stepson's infant son.Some homes almost disappeared,as if the atoms that had made them were gone,and many homes now partially stand, as ifgored, or chewed on."

"And how many trees,how many hairs on a head, torn out,how many plants turned back from discretebeings into wads of matter.Pine, oak, maple, beech,hemlock, witch hazel, lady's slipper,pitcher plant, trillium,Indian pipe. Gardens, trails-by a waterfall, a bench, gone in onebite, dissolved like a grain of salt, as ifthousands of years passed in a minute,as if we jumped the Pleistoceneto the Hiroshimal. But it's just weather.Friend, let us be good to one another."

A tornado moved up from the south and out of the west on a diagonal, traveling fifty miles and touching down eleven times with touchdown lengths varying from one to twenty miles. Witnesses described an overwhelming grayness, a roar like a train, and a white wall of water. Funnel clouds were likened to anteater noses or a grayish teat, driven by clashing cold and heat, wet and dry, and counter-clockwise wind. One person died inside a collapsed home, curled around an infant. Many homes and countless trees, gardens, and plants were destroyed or severely damaged. A plea for kindness closes the account.

Read at The New Yorker