Sunday, May 22, 2022

The Passing Storm

 


Subtle at first like a grumbling moan off in the 

far distant sky, a sound uncertain like a visitor 

approaching an address not quite identified as 

the marked destination but then the moan rapidly 

progresses and it becomes clear the rumble has 

developed in proximity to its target and its target is 

where you happen to be. So suddenly that quiet

sunny day of heat and humidity has been transformed. 

The visitor is no single element but a consortium 

of lightning, thunder, rain and bellowing wind 

blasting the atmosphere and you are ground central 

watching with the fascinated lens of disbelief 

one wave following another of dense rain occupying 

the landscape in a conflict between a sodden forest 

and a sudden armada of dense, dark clouds launched

in atmospheric conflict sending emissaries of raging 

wind lashed to rain whipping the forest canopy

seething onto the forest floor an inundation of storm

gutting whiplash downing rotted old deciduous trunks 

and shallow-rooted firs, heavy limbs of ancient trees

parting with their masts, the forest become a graveyard 

of the spent and dispensable 'till the storm passes.



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