All or Nothing

I ask the lover what she thinks of the lightning storm

“A testament to my passion” she will respond

What is the capacity of the heart? Hundreds of millions of volts without a sound

I ask the physicist and he says

“An over-accumulation of potential energy between the sky and ground”

I listen and hear nothing yet

The sick man approaches me and makes a bet

“The sky is epileptic

Lightning is brain impulses gone awry

The seas are saliva

Foamy and frothy”

There is a threshold

A point of no return

The children learn it at the signal lights

Nowadays

When the action potential must fire

When the reaction must proceed

Cardiac rhythm

Developmental differentiation

Language acquisition

Sensory perception of light, sound, taste, need

When the orgasm strikes my lyre

When the good man turns to greed

He continues

I listen without disbelief

“A seizure is what she is

Paroxysm

Poetry

Darkness when it bleeds

The only thing that can put an insomniac to sleep”

Reminding me the world is mostly empty

Trying to fill up the space

Atoms

Ejaculating

From bottles of mace

“The thunder only coming

Coming

Long after she is raped

We are lonely

Because our hearts have too much room

Even while loving

And as the bride swells to kiss her groom”

I accept his bet

Because I hear it now, the sky shatter

A requiem

Even if it is too late

Like falling leaves

Filling

Bright silhouettes of melancholy

Each a lover

Each confronting infinity