After the storm

After the Storm

183 words


Sam Adams had retired to Tampa, Florida, after decades of hardship service for the United States Government in far-flung corners of the world, having served in some of the most difficult and dangerous places on the planet. He was hoping for a quiet retirement and was looking forward to spending time with his wife. They bought a place on the water.

Then the storm of the century hit and wiped out their entire neighborhood. They had been out of town visiting friends on the West Coast when they saw the approaching monster storm.

A week later they finally got home and surveyed the damage. Their house was gone, nothing left but a broken fence or two. The power was out everywhere. There was nothing but fallen leaves and debris in their front yard. They saw allegators everywhere and moccasin water snakes. And armed white supremacist militias were patrolling the neighborhood, often beating up minorities and other people they deemed suspicious while the police looked the other way, as they were just overwhelmed.

Sam said to his wife,

“Well, this was a rude awakening to life in Florida. Let’s get the insurance money and move back to Oregon.”

She concurred.



Please write a poem or short story with the following title:

"After the Storm"

Use the following in bold in your poem or story:

broken fence
power outage
fallen leaves
rude awakening

The genre is up to you.


author Note: I retired from US government service and currently live in South Korea but am officially a Florida resident for now.