Thunder and Lightning

The collapse of all visions
the air forced out of the storm
like thunder ignored, accommodated,
having long been explained
that the sky does not fall
fall
we've fallen
into this balanced step

uneasy compromise with
paralyzing intuitions
of the eye and bone
the lightning bright flash
gone before there
and then the crash

now we recognize without
seeing, reading the
shorthand of our familiar
landscapes, having lived here
so long. The flash
reminds, reassures, yet still
does not fully
illuminate.
We know everything
so we see nothing.

But the thunder is never quite
music
and the green edge of pain
is still the flesh of the whirling trees


5/1988