Dove in a Hurricane (A Poem)

By Joyce Jacobo

[Author’s Note: Based on a true story. I still cannot remember exactly where this event happened, but its sweet message always stays with me.]

Several years ago               if memory still serves me well

    a massive hurricane devastated several towns

          deep in the Midwest

Houses got torn apart then             amid the wildness of nature

                  but families paid the greatest toll

                                and the lives they had built

 Emergency crews rushed to help those in need

           to rescue the survivors from the debris

                          and comfort them

                     despite the fractured stability

                                  scattered across the land

As they shifted through the wreckage

                of an old barn

       an odd melody echoed into the stillness

            that gave them pause—

                       the unmistakable coo

                                    of a dove

                            from somewhere beneath

                                          the torn wooden beams

                    muffled

                                            yet strong

The crews dug through the ruins

            and came upon

      a miraculous pocket of space

                   in which a dove

                          dirty

                              with both wings broken

              had sung despite

                      the darkness and pain

                           for what they estimated 

                                 must have been at least two days

Later          members of the crew would theorize

       aloud to news reporters

                 the songs

                          had kept the dove alive

                                          with hope

             called out into the world

                    because even a tragedy could never

                              take them away

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