near Lake Superior in July past

The thunder was the test of You,
dropping from heaven in heavy bursts.
Ravenous lightning licking up the sky
was the test of You and me
and if I could find peace in a
Man who stood up to storms and
hushed the savage wind.

I'd paid $400 for this nylon wrapper
that lit up like a candle flame
with each electric bolt from above.
My scattered belongings
and my weak heart were illuminated
and tired from wrestling
the elements inside and out.

Was it four hours I spent walking the beach
in the half-dark, the cold quiet
of midnightness? Time had passed slowly,
choked down to a gasp by the panic
in my bowels. I heard an urgent message
that all was not well--- there was doom
behind the midnight silence!

But You convinced me to lie down,
to lie down and take it, to lie down and
hear the urgent message slip away into the
sand of Lake Superior. I laid down in that
false candlelit cave and the panic in my gut
ran down from hysterical skies as wind,
as rain, as thunder, as lightning.