The position being vacant
For many years,
Today I succeeded Henry David
As self-appointed Inspector of Storms.
My first day on the job--
Quite eventful,
For as I took my seat
On the viewing bench,
I saw
Fledgling cumuli
Emerge from hot-air eggs
Rising from the warm fields
North of town.
Several drifted out
Over the lake
And died--
A youth unfulfilled.
But a few,
A chosen few
Exploded slow motion
In a gigantic
Expansion of moist air.
Growing
Growling
A boiling cauliflower head
Thrusting high
Into the troposphere
Like the mushroom cap
On a stalk
Of invisible currents.
Growing clouds
Now cumulonimbi
Know not why
They speed across the sky
But nevertheless
Feel the urge
There are places to go.
But the wind knows--
especially the wind that
Rushes, rattles, races its way through
The summer corn,
A wind in a hurry.
A few trees try to argue,
Waving in protest,
But there is no detaining the wind
When it pushes a storm line
Thundering through the valley
With renewed vigor,
Tearing at the edges,
Scattering scud swiftly aside.
Ever closer, ever closer
To my reviewing stand, now
Bumping
Bopping
Pushing ahead air so thick
With humidity
I could drink it.
Then the rains.
At first spotting
The pavement
As if emerging from
A pepper mill.
Wind braces
Driving rain
Like blood pounding through
Arteries from the heart
Of thunder.
Hail next,
Hardened offspring
Of the nuptial clash
Between air currents
Within the great cumulo.
Lightning
Whipping its serpent tongue
To earth from cloud base,
Explodes the crown
Of the dead maple,
Bellowing in a boisterous
Bass voice:
"THERE!"
In less than an hour
The fury of the hell-for-leather storm subsides.
Its crackles and throbs,
Sparks and howls
Gone.
Once fabulous swan clouds
Hissing their last.
I look east
And watch the great storm
Melting away--
A snowman
Under the spring sun.
Now only a shadow,
A memory remained.
The storm king,
Once the mighty conqueror
Died a puppet-king.
Strings to the wrath of Thor and Zeus
Cut.
But I,
Self-appointed Inspector of Storms,
Had chronicled its passing.
I closed my book and pen,
Took up my coffee mug
And headed home.
A good first-day's work.