Afternoon - Previously Published

Afternoon

 

A cloud armada slowly drifts

Into the summer afternoon;

A plague against the surrounding blue

Ready to release its pelting ammo;

Their steely shadows darken

The agitated water below;

Their billowy muscles never veer

In the steadily rising wind;

Smoothly they advance

Spreading their grimy tentacles

Slowly expanding their brawn

Into a massive layer of murk

As sun-filtered shadows

Vanish into the every darkening light;

By the dozens they slam

Against a sizzling July asphalt

Urging tendrils of pale steamy fog upward,

The raindrops swell into hundreds of thousands

Blending into a shiny wet sheet

Streaking and smearing the once

Clean and unblurred windows

Now a water cacophony,

Its thunderous growling, heavenly rumblings and

Stabbing jagged lightning bursts

Are the stormy foot soldiers;

The army ravages onward

Oblivious to its left-behind puddles and

Wind blown detritus

As it pulls aside the filmy grey curtain

To reveal a gleaming cerulean sky

In perfect shimmering newness