Meditation and Thunder

Settling on the mat 

Last night as the sky darkened

From an approaching storm

My thoughts wandered

To Buddha’s parable

About the house on fire

When suddenly as if

By sympathetic fallacy

An alarm resounded

In the firehouse nearby and

There was thunder and lightning

Close enough to be frightening

Which gave me pause to wonder

If suddenly Buddha’s metaphor

May have been rendered

Real after all

And then the heavens

Opened and poured forth

In an answering cascade of rain

From roof to eaves and

From leaves to ground

Enough to extinguish

Any fire in the house

Whether real or imagined

A better vehicle to understanding

Than any cart I might fancy

Soaking rain being a gift

And truth sufficient in itself

To settle the dragon

Of the mind

A thunder god