{"id":2235,"date":"2026-07-28T17:05:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T17:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/?p=2235"},"modified":"2026-07-30T11:38:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T11:38:17","slug":"warnings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/?p=2235","title":{"rendered":"Warnings"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Tornado warning, 
effective immediately<\/em>

<\/em>The alert comes in, 
pinging on phone, 
buzzing with haptics
on my wrist, 
pushing a notification 
on my laptop.

Thunder rumbles, 
encroaching, 
menacing:
Do not ignore me.

The PowerPoint file
open on my monitor,
so riddled, injected
with comment bubbles 
that were the edit asks 
tranquilizer darts, 
their sheer numbers 
could down a tyrannosaurus.

But raindrops pelt overhead, 
creating metallic zaps, 
amplified by zinc roof,
conspiring to pull me 
from Decklandia.

My attention wavers,
Allowing my nose to wander.
I smell a sweetness to the air;
the hot steam of a rice cooker.
Is that basmati? <\/em>I wonder.

Back to the deck, 
I must press on.
I stare at forecasts 
and proposed agentic fixes
while the text wobbles, 
warning of over-reviewitis.

The rich perfume 
of roasting spiced meat 
\u2013 is that kebabs he's cooking? \u2013 
climbs the stairwell, 
pours through my open office door.

Eyes tethered to the screen, 
I will myself to find focus, 
and the energy to persevere.
Another growl of thunder; 
my desk lamp flickers. 
The power might go.
And then what? 

I could race time, 
Toe to toe 
against a tornado,
keep my heart rate 
in the orange 
while I fine-tune 
this deliverable.

Or I could give in.
Who am I to fight the wind?
To ignore the sensory 
beckoning of a family dinner,
candle-lit, 
in case the power goes?

Better <\/em>close out this file, <\/em>I reason.
Don\u2019t want to lose my place
in this one life of mine.<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cWarnings,\u201d written Tuesday, July 28, 2026 poem 209 in a series of 365 poems written by Diana Ludwick in 2026. Photo: “Deskside Dinner,” by Diana Ludwick (c) 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2238,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,2,776],"tags":[2066,2067,2073,2074,2070,2062,2065,2068,2063,1838,1558,2072,2071,2061,134,1776,335,2064,2075,2069],"class_list":["post-2235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2026-poetry-challenge","category-poems","category-short-form-musings","tag-basmati","tag-candle-lit","tag-deck","tag-decklandia","tag-deliverable","tag-do-not-ignore-me","tag-effective-immediately","tag-file","tag-haptics","tag-high-summer","tag-july","tag-over-reviewitis","tag-persevere","tag-storms","tag-summer","tag-thunder","tag-tornado","tag-tornado-warning","tag-tyrannosaurus","tag-wind"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2235"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2235\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2239,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2235\/revisions\/2239"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}