A Student of Weather

June 27 2011

There is a heavy rainfall warning

in effect.

This is the weather office advisory

more shrill than watch.

Which seems rather pointless

watching out for bad weather

  —  it will come, regardless.

And either way, the roof will hold

the river rise

well below me.

But I am worse than the fool

who doesn’t know

to come in out of the rain,

and I go out

in this Biblical flood

this inundation.

Like a monsoon, the heavens have opened up.

The air so full, I am breathing water,

torrential drops

stripping leaves, bowing branches

hammering straight down.

Puddles quickly find each other

joining up,

until I’m standing ankle deep

in a broad flat lake,

soaked clothes

shrink-wrapped against me,

hair, streaming.

We have had hail, fire, wind,

so water is hardly threatening.

I can dare nature

without consequence,

here, on high ground

free to duck inside.

Or so I thought.

Because the road’s washed-out

power-lines toppled.

And I am a fool

cold, and sodden

standing in the hundred-year-flood,

head back, eyes shut

surrendering

to wetness.

Now, almost up to my knees

and rising.

So much water, in a world

that is full of drought.

That will run down to the sea

eventually,

leaving it green, overrun with weeds.

The steeper slopes rutted

with dried-out streams.

Exposed rocks

like bones, picked-clean.

So I’ve learned to keep watch

  —  the sky

the far horizon.

Because weather never stops.

Warned,

or not.


My apologies to the fine novelist Elizabeth Hay, for stealing her title. She is an exquisite writer. So please regard this as a kind of homage …not plagiarism!

It sounded familiar, so I googled it. Just as I thought …but too good to change. My alternative was In, Out of the Rain. Which is OK …but just OK.