Hurricane Algebra

A hurricane’s coming.
Or maybe not.
It’s four hundred miles away,
spinning.
That’s Louisville to Birmingham.
El Paso to Phoenix.
If Driver A leaves
her home south of Houston
at 6 in the morning,
driving north—how fast should we say?
Four hundred miles is
almost six hours of driving
if you go 70 mph.
She goes 70; 75
gets you a ticket,
some places.
How fast is the hurricane?
Nine miles an hour, says the latest news.
Damage to porches, tree limbs down,
says the report.
Not bad enough to pack up,
go faster than 70,
run east and north.
Yet.
If Driver B leaves
two hours later from west of Houston
driving in the opposite direction
at a different speed—
wait now: are they on local roads,
doing that different speed?
What do we gain in calculating
our rates of fleeing?
The streets will flood:
that entrance ramp near work
will be under water for sure.
Local inundation, they call it,
but it’ll sweep your car away,
faster that you can add.

Kendra Preston Leonard is a poet, lyricist, and librettist inspired by history, language and the mythopoeic. Her chapbook Making Mythology was published in 2020 by Louisiana Literature Press, and her novella in verse, Protectress, is forthcoming from Unsolicited Press. Her work as appeared in publications including vox poetica, Gingerbread House, and Barzakh. She has collaborated with composers including Lisa Neher, Jessica Rudman, and Stephen Vincent Casellas on operas and songs. Leonard is also a scholar whose work focuses on women and music; and music and screen history. Follow her on Twitter at @K_Leonard_PhD or visit her site at https://kendraprestonleonard.hcommons.org/.