Night Storm

The rains have finally come after what seems like weeks of unwavering heat and humidity. As expected, the rains have come in heavy downfalls with wind, lightening, and thunder. The storm is a relief and it is the thunder and lightening that wake me in the very early hours. My small bedroom is pitch black, punctuated by the blinding clarity of flashing forked lightening. The kitchen and garden beyond it's window are caught like a camera flash... 1 Mississippi, 2 Mississippi, 3 Mississippi... and then the rolling of the thunder... the house shakes and it rattles in my chest, rolling over my body and my head, then passes into the east - becoming more distant with every count... 4 Mississippi, 5 Mississippi...

I hear the rain pounding the pavement through the screen.. gutters overflowing, not being able to keep up with the sudden torrent... and the change in the air is palpable... I know that the morning will be cooler. I know that the plants and trees will seem greener... they have been waiting for this... This storm will signal the turn of a season, the first hint that this summer will not last forever... The plants will now rush to finish their growing, the production of fruit or seed - their reason for their first bold shoots up our of the ground in the spring... to get to this point where they can produce the next generation of their species before they hibernate or die.. this storm will be the signal of the home stretch..

I turn in my cool sheets, feeling a breeze on my bare skin where I am not fully covered.. I turn to face the window where I can better watch the storm.. When the lightening fills the room, I can see my arm, a toe..  I imagine what it would be like to watch this storm with you... if you were curled up with me in this small metal framed bed... to feel the contrast of your warm skin and the cool sheets... would you shiver next to me with bare shoulders? would I see and feel your hardened nipples under the white cotton sheet? I imagine the press of your long leg against mine and your buttocks nestled to the flat of my stomach, and our arms entwined in front of you... I know the scent of your hair and the feel of it on my cheek. Would it change in the storm?

I can imagine rising naked and chilled, taking you by the hand, pulling you to follow me. Could I lead you out to the garden to feel the warm rain fall on our naked bodies? have our hair matted to our heads? our faces lifted to the black sky, mouths opened, holding on to one another... to be startled and exposed to the world naked and wet for an instant in a flash of lightening - then become invisible again as the thunder rolls through us and we laugh..

Seeing each other only by touch and wild bursts of light.. we stand naked in the garden under this storm.. I would kiss you in the dark - pull you to me to feel your slick skin against mine... and together, here, in the garden in the rain - we would feel the first turning of the season...