DECEMBER RAIN – wishing for a rainbow …

A perfect day to share Toowoomba author Susan Skowronski’s visual poem December Rain. We’ve had a few good showers in the past few months but the paddocks are dry and the soil is beginning to crack open, we need a good soaking rain to get the grass growing.

 

DECEMBER RAIN

Stifling

sweat-laden summer afternoon

oppressive heat and clinging flies

deny us pleasure

‘Hot,’ he says

‘Could use some rain’

Sheet lightening flickers in the south west

low on the horizon

a vague promise

a hint, a possibility

‘Not likely,’ he says

‘Probably go round’

Restless, urgent twittering

parrots in the flowering gum

black cockatoos overhead

screech a warning

dark rolling clouds

wipe out the sun

‘Possible,’he says

‘Maybe a drop or two.’

Lightening flash slashes

again and again

awesome pyrotechnic display

rips apart the ink-dark sky

viciously pummels the earth

thunder claps deafen

threaten a downpour

‘Close,’ he says

‘Might come our way.’

A single drop

pings on the hot tin roof

another…and another

dancing, delighting

Suddenly it becomes a torrent

gutters overflow

water engulfs our petunias

ear-shattering thunder

silences bird sounds

drowns conversation

We look at each other

and smile.

Words ~ Susan Skowronski