FLASHES IN THE NIGHT by Cesar Polvorosa , Jr.

A lightning never lingers as it

Streaks across the sky,

Its jagged paths frozen but for

An instant in time.

In the pale wash are momentarily revealed,

Towering spires and lush undergrowth,

Distant hills and valleys.

?

A man by a window is transfixed

By these flashes in the night.

He tries to grasp every iota of detail,

Every subtle nuance.

A sudden vision, a sudden darkness-

It is too much and too soon gone.

Not even the memory remains.

?

The thunder is muffled, the flash is

Defined by the window frame.

The fury of the storm is not fully revealed.

Ensconced behind the glass,

The vision is purged of objectivity,

Perhaps even of its immediacy.

?

The rumbling thunder grows distant.

The brief, brilliant flashes become

Tiny flickers on the horizon.

Caught in the vortex

Of this earthly turbulence,

The man never sees the glimmer of stars.

He prays that these veins of fire

Ribbed across the sky shall never dissipate.

But a lightning never lingers.

#poetry #literature #SanFrancisco #artsandculture #geography #nature #beauty

?