A twister came

A twister came and tore
the roofs clean off our
dizzy heads. The twister
came at midnight and
tucked us in our beds. It
broke the walls and cracked
our skulls and spilled out
all our brains. It opened
up our stuffy homes; let
light in with the rain. Up
with the sun, our bodies done,
they stayed right where
they laid, but we took us
a walk to see just what the
morning made. Through
battered walls and errant
holes, a dioramic view.
We gazed upon our
neighbors’ lives, and swept
our shame aside—for
now we knew how
truly dull were the
things we tried to hide.

By Joe Shetina

Biography:

Joe Shetina (they/he) is a writer based in Chicago. Their writing has failed in some of the industry’s finest competitions, having been cited in the top 15% for the Academy Nicholl Fellowship and given semi-finalist status at the 2019 Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference. They hold a BA in sociology from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana and an MFA in Writing for the Screen + Stage from Northwestern University, where they also taught Foundations of Screenwriting courses as a graduate assistant.