POETRY JAM - LIGHTNING

“A poet is a man who manages, in a lifetime of standing out in thunderstorms, to be struck by lightning five or six times.” - Randall Jarrell
 
The theme of  “Lightning” is this week’s Poetry Jam stimulus for literary offerings by those who accept the challenge. Here is my contribution, rather apt as one considers the wild weather with horrific consequences that many places around the world have experienced.
 
The Watery Grave
 
And as the clouds gathered,
And as the lightning flashed,
As thunder roared,
The rains came…
 
The watery curtains cascaded down,
The rivers flowed and overflowed,
Became torrents; creeks turned to rivers
And the floods came…
 
And as the waters rushed,
And as the dams gushed,
The deluge broke the barriers
And the spate came…
 
The water covered all
In dirty brown slough;
Making lake of land
But the rains still came…
 
The might of surging waters
Overwhelmed man and beast,
Dragged down buildings, destroyed;
And death came…
 
Now as the waters still swell,
As displaced people shiver
From shock, fear, frustration,
Grim realisation came…
 
Silent, sunken, submerged,
What once was dry land and
Homes, cars, gardens, dreams,
All lie under a watery grave.