My eyes sprang open at the thunderclap—

I reached beside and found that you were gone;

The linen cold betrayed that time had passed,

My mind yet numb—recalled no other sound.

Another flash then lit the vacant room,

The chaise lounge where you laid your clothes, now bare;

A rumbling dread soon echoed through the gloom—

I lit the candle—hoping you were there.

In haste I rose and searched with trembling light

Beneath the raging din of pelting rain,

My heart beats matched the drops in panicked plight

As ragged streaks etched anguish in my brain.

There on the table lay a shadowed note—

That cleft more keenly than a lightning bolt.