Peerless, Formidable

She is, in her sublime glory as much
as in her indifferent moods the
supreme guardian, cavalier as she
seems so often, of our well-being.
When she is moodily glum it is we
who pay the price in misery as she
sloughs off parts of her realm in
volcanic ash, tornadoes, wildfires
and cyclones and downpours scouring
the Earth. When calm overtakes her
we are swift to pay homage to her
sublime being, permitting our very
existence. We, her audience, her
offspring, her faithful, both dread
her terrible servants who do no more
than her bidding as they wreak havoc
in the atmosphere and upon the land
and the seas. Our apprehension of
her wrathful destruction mitigated at
those times when her mood shifts
allowing us to revel in placid and
life-affirming alternatives in time and
place. Temporarily setting aside our fear
we marvel at her utter control of all that
has meaning to existence, and in that
moment bask in complacence, set aside
angst and applaud the mother of existence.