Thunderstorm

Thunderstorm

By John W. Vander Velden                 

The dusty land many days beneath the intense summer sun, a hot wind had blown all week.  Small whirling demons of dust, visible, crossing the scorched land, beneath the cloudless sky, only two days before.  But today great clouds rise high above, approaching from the west.  Great masses of white and gray…tumbling and mixing they seem, as quickly they march, closer.  The east breeze, shifting to the north and then west suddenly gusting.  The weather will change.  Far off a rumble more felt than heard warns.  The wise take their cover.  Heavy clouds blot out the sun…It grows dark.  Wind intensifies as brilliant flash leads thunder’s sound.  Large drops pelt the thirsty earth, as countless solders coming from the sky driven on the fierce wind.  Striking with such force, splashing in the new puddles and bouncing off the hardened land only to fall once more.  Kaboom!  The world seems to tremble as flash and sound now simultaneous.  The moist air filled with the scent of the storm, envelopes all, as the pounding increases.  There is water everywhere.  Thick in the air, forming pools wherever land could grasp, and rivulets the thousands of places the land could not.  Kaboom!   Brilliant air shattered.  Wind and rain intensifies.  The sound of huge drops crashing into water and mud fills our ears.  Suddenly the driving rain ceases…Suddenly the burdened sky vanishes…The storm has past.  The bathed world seems fresh…renewed.  Moments later a great arch seen…colors crossing the sky and we know we have survived another thunderstorm…

(256 Words)