NIGHT OF THUNDER

After the rapid-fire, flashing light gushes through the windows,

Olympic drums shake the double-hung frames like rattles;

Pound on the walls as if they were doors.

There is no sleep during the brute force of electric rage,

Insatiable and relentless, incessant, recurrent light and sound

Steal the darkness and the silence.

Even as the fierce wrath grows faint and moves away,

Another round appears to cancel the night,

To reassert the meteoric flames, shrieks, and howls.

While the window flickers like an old movie projector

With floods and winds that drown, with fires that burn,

With earthquakes that crush and trap, and

With guns that mow down crowds.

©cmheuer, October, 2017