GLYN MAXWELL
Flood Before and After
It reeled across the North, to the extent
that even Northerners said 'This is North!'
and what would you have said, to see a sky
threatening the children with great change?
Extraordinary clouds! Spectaculars!
There was the Dimden family, in their barn.
And long, quite vertical rain, the three horizons
hunched, different formulations , browns
and oranges. Then the unlucky Greens
running with their sons to find their sons.
The scarecrow and the crow, they did okay,
getting dark together, but unfrightened.
Fists of clouds! Genii of glamour!
Not to mention thunders, not again!
There stand the Dimdens, safe and sad.
The Greens have found their sons! Now for their daughters.
But out goes the lightning, giant's fork
into a mound of chili, steaming there
and where's it gone? Into the open mouth,
barn and all, flavours and seasonings!
Cuddle in the rain, old favourites.
There goes a Noah, borrowing a plank.
A little slow to move, we thought. It ends
with tangles, the new rivers, and the sunshine
