Thunder & LightningA Poem by David Lewis PagetThe night was a night of thunder, Of flashes of lightning too, Her eyes had stared out in wonder At what it was going to do. She stood by the attic window To stare outside in a trance, While out in the breeze, the wind in the trees Would flutter, and leap, and dance. The bolts had zig-zagged like dragons That fought in the eastern sky, They carried their battle wagons Of fireworks, sparked on high. But now and then with a force like zen They’d crash to earth on the ground, And blight the night with a fierce light And a most tumultuous sound. It rattled the attic windows, The shutters blew out like a sail, The rain pit-pattered each window pane And suddenly turned to hail. The wind was humming and crooning As it flitted up in the eaves, The parting clouds let the moon in, Tracing a path through the trees. And she remembered the tales she’d heard Of the thunder god named Thor, Who beat with his mighty hammer Downstairs on the outside door. The wind was warbling, ‘Let me in,’ In a tone that meant to entice, But Barbara shivered alone in her skin, She wouldn’t be caught out twice. For once she’d opened the outside door In a storm when she was young, And stood on the outside paving stones When the lightning danced on her tongue. And dragons crackled across her brain While lightning flashed from her eyes, ‘Just come outside, there will be no pain,’ The wind was telling her lies. She stood so close to the window pane She wasn’t prepared for the flash, A blinding light almost took her sight, Her image was burnt on the glass. And now if you stand in the garden there Look up to the attic room, And Barbara still stares down at you Though she’s been long in her tomb. She’d turned away from the window pane And staggered down by the stair, She was almost blind but she had to find Just who was calling her there. The outside door swung open and wide She stepped on the paving stones, And Thor delivered a hammer blow That shattered Barbara’s bones. David Lewis Paget
© 2017 David Lewis PagetReviews
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