Learning to fly is half a parachute

31 dead in Siberian passenger plane crash

The Independent, 2 April 2012

Lifting out of the kindest winter, we found ourselves

high in a prematurely blue sky spring, just passengers

following the course of March

on meteorological charts

and tuning in to fortune tellers on television

while down below deck chair flotillas

set sail upon patchwork quilts, their candyfloss

canvases shimmying, seasonal clothing tossed

aside amongst over-optimistic crocuses and daffs.

It was a matter of time before the altimeter crashed,

nose-diving us back to earth. Last time

we saw this much blue sky was 1929.

And now there’s a forecast of snow

laying on Primrose Hill. How were we to know

the early warming

was itself a warning?

We hurry to cover our rooftop hives and bind the fronds of suburban palms

in the run up to easter. But nothing can be done before the snow comes

to protect the pink and white avenues of blossom

or prevent prices rising in grocers this autumn.

So we scramble for our woolen hats and scarves, and wonder

as we tumble like Gabriel and Satan towards the tundra

which it is will cover us —

our insurances, or permafrost.

(c) 2012 Slush Poet