Posted: Aug 29, 08 2:23am
(inspired by Eve...who is kind enough to me to let me admire her)
The storm has widened
till now it stretches out
across the sky from end to end.
The thunder isn't thunder anymore
it must be cherubim or seraphim
in some caprice or slight displeasure
licking at the ends of clouds.
The rain, once quiet
in the early evening
makes waterfalls outside each window.
The wind this time
breathes hard
letting go great gusts of air
that swallows leaves
from every tree
and carries them
in close armada
down the gutter rivers
to clog each drain
and drainpipe.
In winter
this would be a blizzard
and if in absentmindedness
or impatience
he stubs his toe
or stomps his foot
The almighty will have made
on this August night
an earthquake that will go on
rumbling down the ages.
Curiously the streets
are not uncrowded.
Umbrella people deride upright
those caught unaware
hunch over and go nowhere
or go home.
Do they know
this is no ordinary storm
but such a curiosity
that man who can't explain
the elements
siphon into scriptures
and call miracles ?
I brave the rain.
No. The streams of water
falling on my face
and my brave shoulders
as I stand naked
in the backyard
searching out the secrets
of the still beclouded sky.
I have counted moons
magnified them
in a St.Thomas glass,
charted constellations
in the tropics
and shared great armfuls
of dim and distant stars
in my own flatlands
with no one but myself.
A storm is not to stop me.
Though my skyward vision
blurs just now
I feel that I can pierce the sky
see through it
to its certain center.
(A vanity to be sure,
and one of many,)
but I have looked
so hard and long
I'm now astronomer by assimilation
astrologer of sorts by my own will.
It's fitting somehow
Something
Some One I believe in
not even me, myself -
knows what I'm looking for.
Something's surely missing
in the life that I attempt
to live
until I find it
it can have no name.
It is clearing.
A flash of light
and one last
heavenly thunder laugh.
The ground has had
a good long drink.
I stay within the night air.
I feel it out there
Somewhere, still
Something's out here. Somewhere.
