A surprise wind whooshes and blows
as the sky wakes up like an orchestra
tuning its violins and oboes before a show.
Leaves swoosh and swirl on dry cracked dirt.
The wind gusts louder and louder. Pine trees sway
to beckon to the black swollen clouds to play.
Caterpillars hide. Bees, dusty with yellow pollen,
fly back to their hives. Storm’s coming!
Crows caw like a million stage hands
at work before the curtain goes up on the show.
Fat drops splash on a leaf here,
the dirt there, before the sky opens.
Water thumps.
Leaves thump,
And rattle like snare drums.
The thirsty ground
drinks the cool clean water.
Thunder booms!
Cymbals clash!
lightening bolts flash!
When the sun returns from behind the clouds,
crows fly back to a sparkling stage. Bees buzz.
Maple trees with hands heavy with water bow
and high in the balcony, a rainbow applauds.
Poem by Janice Scully
I am a graduate of the Vermont College MFA Program in Writing for Children and Young Adults. My fiction and non-fiction work has been published in Highlights for Children. One of my poems will appear in 2019 in an anthology edited my Miranda Paul entitled Thanku: Poems of Gratitude.