Problems with Hurricanes

The erratic weather we've been having this summer across the country-and around the globe-is nothing short of alarming. What will it take to get us to wake up and start treating Mother Earth more gently? How many more floods? How many more droughts? How many more wildfires? Would getting struck in the head by a mango finally knock some sense into us?

This poem by the celebrated Puerto Rican poet Victor Hernández Cruz underlines the irony that in times of extreme weather, those things that normally nurture us can become weapons that destroy us.

Problems with Hurricanes

by Victor Hernández Cruz

A campesino looked at the air
And told me:
With hurricanes it's not the wind
or the noise or the water.
I'll tell you he said:
it's the mangoes, avocados
Green plantains and bananas
flying into town like projectiles.

How would your family
feel if they had to tell
The generations that you
got killed by a flying
Banana.

Death by drowning has honor
If the wind picked you up
and slammed you
Against a mountain boulder
This would not carry shame
But
to suffer a mango smashing
Your skull
or a plantain hitting your
Temple at 70 miles per hour
is the ultimate disgrace.

The campesino takes off his hat—
As a sign of respect
toward the fury of the wind
And says:
Don't worry about the noise
Don't worry about the water
Don't worry about the wind—
If you are going out
beware of mangoes
And all such beautiful
sweet things.