Nature's Conflict

It had been a darkly deceptive night
with barely a breeze, the sky
a vast velvet dome sequined
with diamond flecks, forests
silhouetted like hulking creatures
of nightmares. As the night hours
passed, assertive wind abruptly rose
ruffling foliage, waking birds
and the ritual of morning advanced
then halted for no light dissipated
the shades of night as dawn entered
without the illumination that
is its calling card to a new day.
The firmament hosted a brooding
mass of bruised clouds, brash in
their gathering force and menace
unleashing thunder and swords
of instant light in a familiar
choreograph of an electrifying
storm holding the day ransom
to the fearsome power invested
in it by nature, lest the world rest
too assured in orderly peace.