blimey how the clouds scud today
people really are
holding on to their hats
and anything else
not firmly attached
on top of this the rain
has turned the pavements
into rushing runnels
sweeping all before them
here and there
drain lids are lifting
is this Noah’s floode revisited
the windswept ones biblically wonder
Is the Old Testament fulfilling
it’s darkest prophecies
now got up as actual tsunamis
global warming made manifest?
blimey what a start to New Year
the weather stats make no sense
half the time they seem
to cancel each other out
‘since records began’ repeats
like a stuttering stuck record
playing three notes
over and over and making
no sense in this monsoon world
so what in the world is going on
was it ever thus or has
something really taken
a turn for the worse?
cats and dogs refuse to go out
outdoor clothes are black from rain
is it time to bring back
old-fashioned galoshes
will sailors’ sou’westers be in Vogue?
meantime brollies blow inside out
brimming house gutters overflow
children oblivious jump into puddles
the canal is lapping the towpath
all the waterbirds are waterproof
so the state of the weather
is as irrevevant to them
as the stormy raindrops
falling on my head
as that song almost said*
Jeff Cloves
*‘Raindrops keep falling on my head’,
Burt Bacharach and Hal David 1969
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