25 years after the Great Storm of 1987
Kent Messenger, 15 October 2012
The clatter of sycamore maple copters
scudding across our conservatory skylight
dredges afresh that Kentish night. Wakened
by slate scratching talon-like over slate
the suck of the storm wheezing through weatherboard
rattling casements, the cottage’s skeleton
creaking, the swaying groans of a scuppered ship.
Rising quickly in darkness risking the bends
to stab at the switch as if priming a pump
stoking, invoking or coaxing a current
into recalcitrant lifeless fittings.
Onto the landing and suddenly standing
in a shower of starlight pouring from a loft
its hatch long spirited into the night sky,
where the roof had been stared a hurricane’s eye.
(c) 2012 Slush Poet
I like this one. I remember the 1987 hurricane. I was cycling in it, in Cambridge.
ReplyDelete