Everything is dampened

Everything is dampened

By rain

Everyday sound is drowned

Muted and muffled

The pounding of every drop

On tin roofs

Every single fall

Ending in a heavy slap

On a wooden deck,

A concrete slab

A shuttered window

A single pane

In a metal frame

Big birds hunker down

All quiet but for

The caw of a lone crow

Guarding its roost

The Minahs

Silenced by the proximity

Of saturated Possums

Bloated Fruit Bats

Sated from a night on the tiles

Slipping on Banana skins

Cars are few and far between

Blacktops disappear

Indistinguishable from the footpath

The city is a water world

Brave souls wearing

Wet weather gear

Battle through the shallows

Short of sense and milk

Hoping for a hot drink

To help them through

Their disengagement

People on balconies

Look on smugly,

Resembling

The steamed puddings

They loved as children

In the old country

Snugly wrapped

In cosy blankets,

Hand-stitched by an old auntie,

Supping hot tea

Watching as the sky falls

Darker

Building into a deeper

Gloomier grey

By the day.