"Event"

(The New Climate reminded me of a boyhood event.) 

On a warm heavy night long ago when I was a boy.

I was unable to sleep

There was a storm coming

I felt it rumble in my chest


The curtains heaved

The first pelts

The ceiling flashed

The sky ignited


I got up

I undressed

'crept downstairs past my sleeping parents

'went out into the yard


Oh the wind!

The rain!

I had never felt nature as this

It covered me

All of me!


Arcing light from horizon to horizon!


I stood by my mother's roses

silhouetted by fire 


I 'was' the wind 

the rain 

the light 

I was washed clean

I was re-born

Re-born, and Baptized by Lightning!