“Mainly Cloudy, Periods of Rain”

Sept 26 2018

A hard rain, marrow-cold.

Not a cloudburst, downpour, deluge

short and sharp and cleansing,

but a steady relentless drip

that seems never-ending

in its dark damp misery,

as if some great scowling malevolence

had stalled overhead

and is testing our forbearance.

Not yet Biblical;

but I'm eyeing higher ground,

and who among us could deny

a reckoning is due?

How long

until the saturated soil

can carry no more

the lakes overflow?

I imagine wild creatures huddling

in inescapable wetness,

as I hold the door

for my irrepressible dogs

meekly seeking refuge,

fur soaked, tails tucked

water heedlessly puddling.

They shoulder against each other,

entering abreast, two-by-two

in an oddly prophetic coupling.

The soothsayers

on the weather page

keep forecasting sun,

but day after day, like a moving target

a clearing sky eludes us.

Not a sun shower

in the freshly rinsed air,

pure autumnal light

glinting off a gentle rain

against an incandescent canvas

of ochre, red, and amber.

And not the steamy heat

after summer storms

as sun burns off the wetness.

Just dull

damp

oppressive.

But in another 2 months, we'll have to shovel it;

the small mercies

with which we console ourselves.

The flood, the covenant

we are reminded of.

The luminous rainbow, return of the sun,

a golden fall

even Indian summer.

When all else fails, the old stand-by: another nature/weather poem!

It began with that image of the sun-shower. After days of rain, I looked up from my easy chair and was pleasantly surprised to take in just this scene: a slanting rain in the foreground, like needles of pure light, against a brilliantly illuminated backdrop of autumn leaves. After several dark days, this felt like the original Wizard of Oz, when black-and-white suddenly gives way to full-spectrum colour. Of course, true to the spirit of this poem, that too proved to be a glimmer of false hope: as I sit here typing this, a glance out the window reveals more dull grey wetness. The tantalizing promise of beautiful fall weather continues to be a moving target ...just out of reach!

The title, by the way, is lifted directly from the Environment Canada weather report for the next few days.