Highway 41

There must have been
A fateful night that broke patterns
When the electricity went out
The lightning burst and crackled
An open scar ripping through heavy and
Fleshy air.

Slice brightly through window
Panes and freeze-frame some small and quickly
Breathing animal pinned to that light-
A dog, specimen-mounted to the lined apex
Of headlights already onto, behind.

That burned road
Would extinguish desire for candles,
Would not push dark into corners,
But would drop heavily in the center
Of the room where laying down
Makes nothing of a prayer,
Draws the piercing flashes swarming
To a body never hit
But prone.