Shock and Awe

Somebody is walking their bicycle through a thunderstorm. 

Someone forgot (or never knew) that you walk these cloudy plains

with one eye on heaven and one on your holloway. 

I am in mine counting seconds. 

I am counting the seconds between and it is getting closer. 

They measure everything with light and the cesium atom and

I measure the height of my peeking boots and the seconds between. 

I think that I am safe and well to ground, 

but I can't breathe well in the seconds between. 

Now there are trees exploding and there are no seconds between.

There is nothing but flesh, nothing at all

between the flash and the thunder. The shock and the awe. 

The man with the bicycle is now screaming and now quiet. 

I count nothing but the flocks above

retreating in formation.