Of August Storms by Susan L.

  The watery air is thick with anticipation. Not a breath of wind touches the treetops. Smoky gray replaces idyllic blue. Darker. Darker. The sky presses down heavy. Brilliant flashes dance. The one second, two second, three, fo... a feel-it-in-your-bones grumble echoes and echoes as far as the ears can hear. Counting the miles from the when/where lightening sliced pierced the ground in trepidation. Is it coming? Will it pass? Distant rumbles draw nearer. One, two... The static, cellophane crackle of a nearby strike; a pointed, blinding barb of light too close for comfort. O (A jump making, heart stopping booming snarl) ne.
  Pumpkin fur flying flees from my side at the window to a refuge under the bed.
  Fat drops gain momentum. Silvered cousins, brothers, aunts join the monsoon torrent. Too much too fast. The ground rebels. Temporary rivers along the side of the road race the cars tearing by in a whoosh and a splash. Tree boughs laden with water bow before the storm. The apples on the driveway float in a newly formed mini-lake.
  One, two, three...seven, eight...do I hear it? Faintly, faintly...twelve.  
  A cricket tentatively chirps an angel harp chorus, "Rejoice! Rejoice! The storm has passed!"
  The lowering sun bathes glistening greens in a light rarely seen this side of heaven; a light tasting of newness, of sins washed away. The fleeing clouds are painted colours no earthly artist could ever duplicate: unimaginable shades of pink, lavender green, purples deep, and gilded billows. Yellow flowers gently sway in an aura of gold as they shake the rain from their petals. Tree trunks shimmer old penny copper. The dark ribbon of road steams iridescent droplets.
  It lasts only breath holding, heart aching at the beauty moments before the clouds thicken, drawing a curtain over the light.
   A soft rain begins to fall.
  "You crown the year with Your goodness, and Your paths drip with abundance. They drop on the pastures of the wilderness, and the little hills rejoice on every side." Ps 65:11-12