Lightning Bolts Attacking Trees
by Liz Varley

I don’t know how I missed it,
a lightning bolt falling from a cloud
the same day I noticed how the sky
was shaped
a rounded belly rainy day it was
my father noted the blasted off section of the elm
puzzled as to how the lightning gods
knew where the disease was hiding in the tree
this all happened on Holy Saturday
the lightning was like a stairway
my brother said,
gone before you could note any dimensions
it was green and
slick on the inside
like an oiled moustache
the space in between it and the rest of the tree
seemed haunted for days
by the empty soul
of the lightning bolt.

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