A Summer Storm

From the safety of the porch

and the storm windows, battened down,

we watch the storm approach,

its final descent onto the lake.

Dark clouds had formed out of nowhere

obscuring the blue of a summer sky,

and the thermometer dropped, a rapid shift downward

in the temperature. The wind, too, kicked up a frenzy,

turning the leaves upside down and inside out.

While at the head of the lake, a line of demarcation advanced, 

smooth water on one side and whipped on the other,

wind and water, churned by a heavy rain.

We could see it coming as it steadily made its way

down the lake to where we sat, watching,

a spectacle less scary from the safety of the porch,

where we are now, protected, looking out,

sharing this together, secure in that;

but we are made small by this raging force,

unpredicted on a summer day, out of our control

and reminding us once again, who we are

and where our place is here at the lake, strangers,

a reminder solidified in a summer storm springing up,

safely herding inside to wait and watch and remember,

a storm ending as suddenly, as quickly as it began.