Member-only story
Poetry | Double Acrostic
Summer Storm
When we were lightning.
In darkness, any light shines brighter:
Nestled ’twixt dawn’s faint shine —
Dreary gray — and savage storm’s delight,
A streak. Electric ribbons, low to high —
Race, savage, slicing dark like a zig-zag
Knife, blinding. For a moment, I
Need stop and catch my breath, as thunder,
Ever-louder, rumbling, cracks the tomb.
Silence, thus awoken, speaks,
Soft as a summer breeze:
“Arise,” she whispers in the drenching rain.
“Never hide your light, again.” And I
Yell, “Yes!” Rejoicing, I relinquish
Lethargy, that dull soft cloth that blankets
Iridescent shine — insensate, faint,
Gray as a mourning dove. This half-hearted sigh
Hides a beating heart, a growing
Thing that now emerges from the earth and I,
Slowly stretching, unfurl with a howl
Heavenward. “Yes,” I sigh, releasing energy
Incandescent. Ain’t got nothin’ on me, Mr. Sun.
Nanoseconds: eternity in a flash. An era
Ethereal, so real, too soon the moment passes;
Scintillating in narrow spaces
Between heartbeats, like a guttering candle flame,
Rest, return to ground or stars, breathe ozone in…
Ignite the air again and in the dark,
Glorious, blaze and rend the air!
Hailstones tumble, glowing in the aura
That still dances on a breeze, supercharged.
Enervated, spent: storm’s darkness yields again, to dawn:
Rain falls softly, dots the sidewalk like confetti.
