Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Nearly a villanelle

A Voice Like Thunder[1]

In the heat reduced by the shadow of a cloud,

past homes-turned-rubble you’ll find the place

that darkness covers like a shroud.


A dozen drowned here. Rain turned river ploughed

down this street like a bull at breakneck pace

in the heat reduced by the shadow of a cloud.


With its horns, the river, rushing and loud,

tossed men beneath this tunnel, a space

that darkness covers like a shroud.


In this desert wasteland of dust, how’d

anyone expect to be drowned or displaced

in this heat, reduced by the shadow of a mere cloud?


Eyes closed, we built houses on sand. We allowed

no warning voice to relocate that base.

Our self-made darkness covers like a shroud.


Groaning thunder meant little. We were too proud

to hear the birth pangs, to watch and to brace.

In the heat reduced by the shadow of a cloud,

how great is that darkness that covers like a shroud.



[1] Revelation 6:1

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