Today I stood in welcome rain, the storm brewing and breaking over the hills. After months of blue skies we need more rain, the countryside is tinder crisp, the river bed dry stones, the trees and flora thirsting for water. Today was a short burst of refreshing cool and as the season cools and the warm sea holds its heat, we can expect an autumn of heavy rains. I hope they will be good rains, not the destructive force that can affect this area after a hot summer.
SUNDAY STORM
Weeks of summer heat, life adjusts
to sun’s rhythm, if not done before
the fireball starts its westward arc
the toil can wait another day.
Heat blasting rock face, geckos
hide in creviced shade, green fades
to dusty grey as water leaches
from cracked, parched earth.
I join the creatures, spend days
holed in cool of thick walled cave,
come alive at night when
owl swoop and bats flitter.
Today the season turned,
terracotta chill on bare foot,
dawn air fresh like the nip
of a dewy, caravan morning.
Heat steams from tarmac street,
mugginess suffocates,
tension tightens as sweat pours
on a Sunday afternoon.
Storm breaks, drops splatter
round as toffee pennies, rush
to close warped shutters, house
sealed before incoming rain.
High on roof terrace as forked
sparks cut through charcoal clouds,
tumbling down hillsides like
bubbling burnt sugar.
Count the thunder, seconds for
miles as children once chimed,
echo rumbles round valley walls,
sky fractured with drum rolls.
Water rains down, cleaning village
streets, washing dust streaked leaves,
refreshing scorched ground as swifts dart
like flocks of iron filings in white sky.
Shiver as rain drips down damp skin,
cold welcome as storm’s darkness
ends summer’s excess, autumn rains
cleansing, reviving, renewing.
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