The lightning flashed outside my window,
my head snapped to attention.

I counted the seconds…

When thunder cracked before I reached three
and the drops fell thick and fast
on steaming pavement,
something inside me snapped, too.

Throwing aside my books, my computer,
the papers and details trapping me in my chair,
I ran to the back door
out onto the patio
into the midst of the storm.

The wind buffeted my face and back in turn,
In seconds I was soaked to the skin.

Lifting my lips to the purple and grey sky,
Raising my arms to the baptism
of ion and electricity,
thunder and rain,
I laughed in relief.

In release.
In renewal.

There I stood, water sluicing down my shins,
my neighbors peering through curtains with concern—
Fear?—etched between their eyes,
until my lips were as purple as the clouds.

I stepped dripping onto the kitchen rug,
clean, alive,
free.

I gather electricity from lightning
and eat it with salt water for breakfast.

I wear thunder as a cloak,
sew massive storm-clouds into a dress to dance in,
sleep with hurricanes at night.

Let the neighbors stare—I will make love to the rain.

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Relephant reads:

She Will Dance Alone In The Rain. {Poem}

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Author: Katie Marie Frank

Editor: Yoli Ramazzina

Photo: Flickr/Jeffrey