Thunderstorm
Poetry By Will Dugan (Originally published under the Pen Name of Blind Melon Ugly Dude)

Rolling rumbling thunder
Warns the warm, wet dark
Of impending claps and flashes.

A distant boom starts anew
The rumbling rolling
Rolling rumbling
Thunder thrills the night.

An instant's fright
Is perverse delight.
As the hair on the nape of your neck
Stands tight.

The jagged twisted tortured spike
Lights the sky
And shocks your eye
And your nerves are in tune to the essence.
Your nerves are in tune with the essence.

Shadows leap and then disappear
As the flash and the clap are somewhat near
And the sculptured shades of gray cloudscape
Go charcoal once again.

On and off the cloudscape flickers.
Now you see it.
Now you don't.
More detail than your eyes can manage,
So your mind takes over
And your thoughts tune in to the essence.
Your thoughts are in tune with the essence.

The rolling rumbling
Rumbling rolling thunder
Achieves a rhythm.
And the night is alive to that rhythm.

The charge and the discharge
Of the ion's friction
Ignites the ether
And excites your senses
To the point of cosmic awe.

Another searing flash
Followed by the almost instantaneous clap ...
Pinpoint your pupils
Protecting your optics.
Providing sensory pleasure which has no measure.

And the show continues.

The sculptured shades of gray cloudscape
Dance to the flickering lights.
From bright to dark
And dark to bright,
Across the sky.
Oh, sensuous night - Oh, beautiful sight!

And the neon spikes
Play games in the clouds.
Rivers of energy
Concentrated into twisted torrents
Of yellow, blue, and white ...
Highlighting and contrasting
The ever-changing, windblown cloudscape
As the night tunes in to the essence,
The tune of the night is the essence.
Your mind and your thoughts and your skin ALL tingle,
And your soul is in tune to the essence.
Your soul is in tune with the essence.

But ...-...

Now the rolling rumbling rolls away
And falls faint upon your ears.
And the claps and the flashes
Infrequently find you.
So the memory you hold dear
Of the storm and the night and the sense's delight
And the forces that some men fear.

Copyright © 2009 By Will Dugan