Along With The Thunder

It wasn’t the lightning that split me-- it was the silence that came before. That breathless hush like the world holding its tongue right before it screams. I have learned to count the seconds between betrayal and the crack-- the flash of what you did, and the roar of who I became. Don’t tell me to be soft in this storm. I was soft when I begged, when I bled through apologies you never meant to give. Now, I burn. I rise with the wind. The sky echoes me and I do not flinch at the sound of myself anymore. You ran when the clouds broke. I stood and screamed back. Because I don’t come after the thunder. I come along with it.