In the quiet of a new morning,
in the lingering clean of last night’s rain,
I remember the slight thunder
that roused me from sleep
sometime deep in the darkness.

I woke for but an instant,
a brief stirring in the mind
that hardly rippled into the body,
and soon eased me back into my rest.

I didn’t think about the big Chinese elms
that surround the house
and could come crashing down on it.
I didn’t contemplate the many manners of fate
that could come swooping down
out of the skies of May
during the peak of tornado season in southern Kansas.
I guess I must not have thought anything
other than “That sounded like thunder;
I didn’t think there was any more rain forecast for tonight.”
Just that, nothing else, except maybe
an incredibly brief wondering about my next day at work.

I would like to think
that such a simple return to ease
must be in keeping with a strong faith
and a clear conscience—
but it might be that I was just really sleepy.

Apparently awake some hours later,
that has got me wondering
how often it might be
that what seems like
a powerful level of trust and confidence
in the Divine Presence and Plan
might pan out to be nothing more
than a hazing degree of obliviousness
or a determined indifference to things
that really do matter.

Might take me a while longer
to get back to sleep
the next time something rattles the house.

H. Arnett
5/14/19