After the Thunder

I remember how my body answered

Before my mind took breath

Something ancient, pulsing

Something touching life and death

Every look a breaking open

Every touch a whispered yes

I never asked for promises

I wanted this — and nothing less

I remember how it took me

No warning, no restraint

Blood and breath and hunger

No space between want and flame

Didn’t try to own the moment

I stepped inside it whole

Fell headlong into the burning

Let the wanting take control

I stayed past every warning

Tried to teach the flame to care

Tried to shape that wildness

Into something life could bear

Then the truth came clean and sharp

No mercy in its gift

What burned with that much hunger

Couldn’t love without a rift

I fought the knowing in my chest

Like it was mine to beat

Called the ache devotion

Called the damage heat

It nearly broke me walking out

From something so alive

Every step away felt like betrayal

Of a self I barely survived

There’s a moment after thunder

When the ground still holds the sound

When the body knows the truth

Before the soul can slow it down

Some loves are born of fire

All blaze — and that’s their gift

You feel how fiercely you are living

Till even breath won’t lift

When love arrives at twilight

A steady flame to stay

We breathe in easy wonder

By a love that lights the way

Some loves rise out of fire

Some teach a deeper art

How to warm without consuming

How to live inside the heart

_________

Copyright: Ronda LaRue, rondalarue.com 01/2026