Life

The farthest thunder that I heard
Was nearer than the sky,
And rumbles still, through torrid noons
Have laid their missiles by.
The lightning that preceded it
Struck no one but myself,
But I would not change the bolt
For all the rest of life.
Indebtedness to oxygen
The chemist may repay,
But not the obligation
To electricity.
It founds the homes and decks the days,
And every clamor are bright
Is but the gleam of concomitant
of that waylaying light.
The thought is quiet as a flake --
A crash without a sound;
How life's reverberation
Its explanation found!

~ Emily Dickinson