Sudden Pressure - Jamie McGillen

                                             Lightning sails sideways in sharp arrows.

                                        Heat has built all day, all summer inside

                                    the narrow R.V. we can’t peel our eyes

                               away from purple, yellow, pink bolts of 

                         electricity and the radio says nothing about an emergency but we listen

                      anyway as this is a delicious spectacle for us. We lick cherry popsicles

                  and my wide brown eyes lock on those bolts that should be scary, but

                                                             Dad’s face says It is what it is

                                                        and it really is, this thing that

                                                     izzes across clouds rumbling

                                                low growls slapping the very

                                           bowels of heaven leaving

                                       burnt shadows in the

                                   blackness, a trace

                               of light, like a

                           sharp knife
                      or a cat

                    of nine

               tails