Economic Weather Woes

Lightning sunk orange teeth
clean through earth’s fragile
green epidermis, raising communal
concerns of contagious
bacterial frenzy
uncontained,
fast moving,
and what’s worse,
apathy’s slow wet seep
under the garden hose,
stiff and plastic,
where only rank mud
and scattered tulip petals
persist across
late afternoon’s
waning
light show.