THE GULF STREAM

Across the Kingdom

The weather arrives in the post from Europe

By pack-horse from the Near East

Camel from a variety of deserts

And on WeChat from the Orient

Nothing seems to be coming from the rest of Africa

Or from any of the Americas

(We might need to check the why of that)

Or did we miss a phone call?

Probably some places in the Southern Hemisphere

Or on the other side of the world

Are too far away to send us weather

I don’t know and I don’t really care

So I’m just leaving those lines as they are

It was just an idea almost certainly not worth

Pursuing any further than line 8 or 9

And probably not even that far

So anyway the curtain is going up on Autumn now

Which is why weather came up as a topic today

We think of people donning capes and sou’westers

The anorak from the Inuit annoraaq

Imagine a wet and windy English evening

Ernie the Engineer is in the railway yards

In the sidings the trains have done their work for the day

Remember the Golden Age of Steam

There is no steam now only the heavy modern air

And dreaming of escape we have fallen in love

With the Gulf Stream although

We don’t really understand exactly what it is

It is not unusual to become over-excited

As the mind wanders as minds do

And it becomes necessary to call in at a chemist

To purchase a cooling draught

And then go look for someone to help organize

Our thoughts our ideas our life

 

 

 

Martin Stannard


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