The Electric Aria

In skies of slate where dark clouds loom,

And distant thunder starts to boom,

A charge builds up in heavens high,

Nature's power about to fly.

The air grows thick with tension's weight,

As earth and sky communicate,

In silent language, old as time,

Preparing for their dance sublime.

First a flicker, faint and far,

Like the winking of a star,

Then a flash that splits the night,

Blinding brief, yet burning bright.

Jagged fingers reach and grasp,

Bridging cloud to ground in gasp,

A billion volts in instant's span,

Too quick for eye of beast or man.

Fork and sheet, bolt and ball,

Lightning has no single call,

Each strike unique in path and form,

The signature of every storm.

Some branch wide like winter's trees,

Others straight as summer's breeze,

But all carry in their core,

The primal force from days of yore.

In deserts where the rain ne'er falls,

The lightning dances, spurns, enthralls,

Glass tubes form in scorching sand,

Fulgurites shaped by nature's hand.

On mountain peaks and open plains,

The bolts strike free from thunderous rains,

A deadly beauty in the sky,

That makes the heart both soar and fly.

Ozone's scent pervades the air,

As ionic charge leaves atmosphere,

The crack and rumble soon behind,

Sound's delay by light outshined.

In this moment, brief yet vast,

Present, future, and the past,

Converge in electromagnetic show,

Earth's electric currents flow.

Myths and legends, tales of old,

Speak of lightning's power bold,

Zeus and Thor with thunderous might,

Wielding bolts in godly fight.

Franklin with his key and kite,

Proved electricity's true site,

Science slowly unveiling,

What ancients found so bewailing.

In forest dry where trees stand tall,

A single strike can start the call,

Of fire that spreads with hungry trace,

Destroying, yet renewing space.

For in this act of devastation,

Lies the seed of new creation,

Ash enriches soil below,

Where stronger, hardier plants will grow.

Lightning strikes the ocean blue,

Energizing waters through and through,

In primordial soup's embrace,

It might have sparked the human race.

Amino acids, simple forms,

Awakened by electric storms,

Life's first flourish, science surmises,

From these celestial enterprises.

Cities glow with borrowed light,

Harnessing the day in night,

Yet when the tempest's fury wakes,

Man's frail constructs often break.

Power lines fall, transformers blow,

As nature's show puts on a show,

Reminding us with flashing curse,

Our place within the universe.

Some seek to tame this wild force,

To channel it for human course,

In Tesla coils and plasma globes,

We mimic what the sky disrobes.

Yet pale imitations these remain,

Of what splits sky and shakes the plain,

For nothing made by mortal hand,

Can match what nature has so grand.

Photographers and storm chasers brave,

The elements, these sights to save,

Capturing in frozen frame,

The lightning's ephemeral flame.

Time-lapse shots reveal the grace,

Of bolts that dance through cloudy space,

Each image but a sliver caught,

Of nature's vast electric thought.

In future days, perhaps we'll learn,

To use this power, to truly earn,

The lightning's gift of pure energy,

Unleashed, yet harnessed, wild but free.

Till then, we watch with awe-struck eyes,

The brilliant flashes in the skies,

Each bolt a reminder stark and clear,

Of forces ancient, primal, near.

So next time clouds grow dark and deep,

And you feel the thunder's creep,

Remember this electric song,

That's played since earth was young and strong.

In lightning's flash and thunder's roll,

We glimpse a power vast and whole,

A spectacle both fierce and bright,

That turns the day to sudden night.

For in this aria of light,

This symphony of day and night,

We see reflected, pure and strong,

The universe's electric song.

A reminder of our humble place,

Beneath the sky's majestic face,

Where lightning dances, wild and free,

Nature's own electricity.