"Thunderstorm in Dorset, Vermont" by John Updike

"The Thunderstorm" by Grandma Moses

It needs green hills to host a thunderstorm;
this grumbling giant needs a place to hide
and break his kindling into splinters,
one stick at a time, and then in bundles,
compacted threats that issue forth from where
an oily darkness reigns beyond the ridge.
The sizzle in our brains is overruled
by such triumphant voltage overload.

We witness vast concussions; something falls
down sets of stairs the bottom step of which
cracks open wide enough to show a strip,
a vein of naked light. All goes soft--
the rain unfurls in supple gusts, the leaves
flash pale, then limply steep themselves in green.

"Thunderstorm in Dorset, Vermont" by John Updike, from Endpoint. © Knopf, 2009.