The Lightning Vespers Poem by Emmanuel George Cefai

Dreaded day!
Dreaded lightning
That came!

Gray and common
Were the skies
And there already
Shone a night star

Then a frowning cloud
Betrayed
The awry moon
Hiding behind it.

Yet
From the closed church
When
The people and the farmers
Went
From behind closed
Doors
Rang an organ slow
Then higher
Higher.

And
Outside the first lightning
Then another
Then more
Then more
Frosty the country-side
Drear
Next full of rain
And a half-gale
That blew:
Mourning all in drear
Black
Then gray and common
Without
A Dawn
Without new day.