Sudden Thunder

The skies were a bit threatening, but nothing serious, as I set out on my morning walk. Still, I had chosen one of my intermediate routes, which would add two miles to my good-behavior record, rather than the usual one mile ... or, in warm, sunny weather, three miles.

I'm sure there had been some rumblings, but nothing to worry about, just a bit of background music as I went strolling along, my thoughts a million miles away.

I was somewhere along Watervliet Avenue, heading generally east, when a sudden explosion of thunder got my attention. Did it ever. It was so loud that "nearby" seems an understatement.

I remember turning - I have no idea what I expected to see - but I turned, found myself looking down this driveway, and there, in the wind and rain, was this beautiful rose, bending and straightening, almost as though beckoning to me.

I've tried to fix that exact location in memory, but I have yet to locate that precise driveway, that fence, that rose again.

I must have been soaked by the time I got home, but I don't remember changing into dry clothing. I don't think I was chased all the way home by lightning. I would certainly remember that. But do remember that moment when I turned and discovered that rose.

I'll always remember that.

The poem:

SUDDEN THUNDER

I was walking,

cradled in thought,

when a nearby

crash of thunder

wheeled me

and I stood looking

down a long driveway

at a deep red rose

that was leaning

and straightening

beside a dark

gray fence.

For the longest

moment I remained

rooted there, letting

the rain trickle

down my neck,

drip from my

fingers, admiring

this beautiful flower

that had drawn me

to it with

a clash of cymbals,

brittle song

of thunder.

© 2003

(from my first collection, Chance of Rain, published in 2003 by Finishing Line Press)

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Today's word:

thunder