Brontophobia The Fear Of Thunder

Brontophobia The Fear Of Thunder

It starts before the sky breaks

before the light

before the sound

A change in the air

a silence that crouches

the kind that makes birds vanish

and dogs go still

I know what is coming

I always know,

my heart thumps.

i want to sleep.

Curtains pulled

mirror covered

window open

door ajar

as if any of it matters

My breath goes tight

like lungs remember

what my mind wants to forget

It is not just thunder

it is something bigger

something older

the kind of fear

one that does not need explaining

I have hidden in bathrooms

in cupboards

under coats

waiting for the world to stop shaking

Even now

grown and grounded

I still feel it

that child in a phone box

her face buried in her mam’s coat

praying the noise will end

before the sky splits again

People say it is just a storm,

they do not hear it like I do

they do not feel it

in their hearts this fear.

There is no cure

no comfort

just the quiet afterwards

and the slow crawl back

into whatever peace I had before

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