Only smudges at first–
flecks of white in a sky so deep it seems as blue and bottomless as the ocean,
but the flecks grow,
coalesce,
loom higher,
cover the sky until the white blots out the sun,
and darkens and becomes heavy with thunder
shot through with fire that flashes from sky to ground,
burning, hungry,
threatening to smudge the world with smoke
until the heavy sky can to longer hold the weight of water
and gives birth
to rain.

©Sue Ann Bowling