Copyright (C) 2002 by L.M. Wong Dommy dominaeprimus@yahoo.com NATURAE by DOM ARBITER: That which is swiftest may speak first . LIGHTNING: My tardy twin Thunder , resent me not for my swiftness . Bear with me patiently . I was made to streak . Seen as jagged slender strands , flashing boorishly . A snippet of intensity . Tarry for a twinkling , then I?ll away unlike the sun who burns through the life of day . My bolts set afire inconspicuous shrubs of lowlands and I have felled towering trees . No hiatus for hesitation ere the fateful sweep . Whipping lashes stay their distance from compassion . Dart as I may I cannot escape being a herald and accompaniment of Nature?s tempestuous ravings . THUNDER: Clarion of the heavens . Faithful and boisterous shadow of bolting lightning . Herald of advancing showers . Thunder I am named . I trail my brethren so faithfully we are often thought of as one entity . Some fear my bellowing more than whipping cracks from my kinsman. When I erupt , my sonic boom flusters and splinters quiet . To the faint hearted I?m the dreaded heart jolter , after the flash . Even at my most subtle attempts at whispering , my secrets are known across the plains . ARBITER: A mite tardier than lightning but still promptly stated . SKY: From the horizon upwards , lies my dominion . Whenever Heaven is mentioned , I come to mind . Claimed by governments of the earth though they are bound to the ground . Perhaps it is my Fate to literally be the ?air of contention? . Mortals look up to me as they invoke , voyagers seek me to discern course and location . I evolve from being plainly pale to being bedaubed with every obtainable hue in the hours of diurnal privilege.On nights clear , jewelled treasures wink and gleam on darkened backdrop . When my mood is darkened , my state is overcome by sinister cloud banks , a sure presage of intemperance . Winds growl ominously . Thunder rumbles threateningly while its twin flashes and cracks its whip . It?s violence ascending . Vexations or calm of the earth below , by virtue of my station , I am privy to them . What mischief or righteous deeds of earth dwellers , I am aware unless they be cautiously guarded , discreet in manner , shielded by opportunely erected walls or foliage dense , I must confess the confines of my notice . WIND: Aye , yea to all that . But o'erlook me not for I mush roving evolving clouds skywards any season . I have watched them in limber state or weary with a load of grey . Mutating portions distancing , approaching , amalgamating with main hub of the herd . At the fancy of my exhalation , I lead them along a lazy trot , in prancing pace or at full gallop . EARTH: Surface that sprawls till ebbing edges of sight . Lesser than the sea yet I too am a host to life . In plainer terms ? The very ground that you tread . Lush where dew and rainfall converge . My verdant glory thrives well in temperate clime . None of the living will ever be in want unless they be