Friday, October 22, 2004

Thunder

The sky is darker by the second
The air thick and threatening
The heat of the last few days
Intolerable
And everybody says
The lawn needs some rain

Room two eleven
Has been prepared for the patient
Four vases of flowers
A fan to push the air around

The room grows darker still
A sorrowful magpie darts past the window
Distant flashes of electric blue
As lilacs and oak trees shiver
Readying themselves for the strike
Strolling nurses in the road glance anxiously up
I eye the scaffolding outside warily
Metal mischief stacked up against the building
And I wonder
As the storm rumbles in from the sea
I wonder
As I wait
As I gaze at the empty bed
I wonder
And I say a prayer
As you lie in the operating theatre
And I wonder
Are birds scared of thunder?

3 comments:

Roger Stevens said...

This is another poem from the time when Jill was in hospital with an ovarian cyst.
I really like the last line. I think it's going to be the title of my next book of grown-up poems.

Wastedpapiers said...

It has a certain appeal.

Anonymous said...

Apple peal?