it pours. hail impacts with the ground and melts away quickly. light fills the sky and thunder rolls up my spine. rain runs down the bamboo stocks and soaks the earth. a storm; i have not felt one in a long time.i can see the light in her eyes too. she feels it the way i do. whole body tense, excited. FLASH. wait for it. thunder rolls across the sky, through the air, fills me.
i remember when i was quite young and the summer storm rolled in. the static was so thick in the air you could feel it on your skin, watch the hairs on your arms lift and tingle. the lightning split the sky and thunder would boom after it, roll over you like the waves of the sea crashing just beyond the dunes. i climbed the stairs off the porch to the deck on the roof. the storm surrounded me. i became part of it, part of the light, part of the waves, part of the charaged air around me. my mother called to me from below. demanding that i come down. but her words just floated around me. they became part of the storm and i could not tear myself away…
we sat there in the dark and felt the storm. the soft lights gently glowing on the edge of our bodies as we sat and stared out at the storm. a barely visible steam rising from the hot water. flashes in the sky.
the bedroom is dark. music playing too loud in borrowed headphones. light bursts in through the cracks in the blinds. the thunder is soft, gentle now. the rain falls lightly now on the roof i can still feel the chlorine on my skin and when i close my eyes from the screen’s light i can see her silhouette in the window before the bamboo. i can feel the thunder in my chest. i can see the light in the sky. i invite the storm. i find myself in it. that little girl holding a storm in her arms smiles from somewhere deep. i smile back.
Comments