The Trouble with Lightning
       

is it travels without resistance
through any body of water.

The human body is
just another body of water to lightning.

The trouble is that it can miss you entirely,
pace the earth alongside of you and

be drawn up your running legs,
bead off the fingers like pearls.

The trouble is it won't sit in the corner and
wait for you to gather it like a javelin to hoist

in the direction of the deserving.
The trouble is mostly in what a man deserves.

On any given Thursday afternoon,
lightning can find you

sitting in the car on the highway, and
bore through the sky above.

The trouble with lightning is
how rarely it kills a man.

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Copyright © 2014 TJ Jarrett All rights reserved
from Zion
Southern Illinois University Press
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission