After the Heatwave - June 7 2023

 

After the Heatwave

June 7 2023



A dull day

of intermittent rain

under low grey skies.

After the heatwave

the relief was powerful.

I felt almost giddy

at the patter of raindrops

pelting down

on my yellow plastic poncho.

At stomping through puddles

like a reckless kid,

untouchable

in high-top gumboots.

At the misty air,

reviving

my sun-dried skin.

And at seeing the trees, drooping from exhaustion

now standing strong,

a deep rain-washed green.

Beauty

is in the eye of the beholder.

And a beautiful summer day

can be whatever you choose.

Even rain

and a chilly breeze.

My people

come from temperate places

that are mostly drizzly, misty, grey,

where no one talks about the weather

because what is there to say?

I wasn't born there

have never visited.

Yet generations later

I feel some atavistic pull

to that ancestral land,

distant as it is

in time and space;

its wretched weather

dour people

gauzy light.

So soft and even

I need not squint

or shade my eyes.

And open wide

can see with striking clarity;

drinking in the greenery

like a long-lost traveller

returning home.