I was so moved by this T. I lost my Ma to cancer some years ago. I watched her wither in front of my eyes. Like you, I counted the breaths and the lengthening pauses. But to me your poem signified her (the lightning) and her diminishing breath (the thunder), as it gradually diminished, and stopped. Like every reader of poetry, even tho the poet was heading in one direction, the reader possibly takes another from the work. This is what I got from your poem. Sorry if I'm totally off here. But then again, I'm not. Because your words made me remember her fading breath. In other words T. Nice one sonna. B