Today there is heavy rain

Today there is heavy rain

What good is it to me

Or anyone else

Driving winds blow everything

Down the hill

Toward the sea

The water running with vicious intent

Shoes were never meant for this

An amateur would say

Any umbrella is better than none

Until the wind turns it inside out

Wet feet

What is it about wet feet?

Mum would say my feet would

Become webbed between the toes

They never did

Although I did have a friend who resembled

Aquaman

Sometimes in the rain

Only the brightest colours stand out

Everything else looks the same

So many shades of grey

Wasn’t that a weirdly successful book

About bondage

I never read it or watched the film

Did anybody I wonder and if so why?

Swept off the ground

Fallen branches fly

It is a dangerous excursion

To be out in the storm

For the sake of exercise

And morning coffee

What a state of affairs

When the whipped cream

On chocolate eclairs

Can be deposited on the ground

Several feet away

Tramp, tramp, tramp,

If I wore hobnail boots

My feet would be dry

But oh the weight would be crippling

My calves would cramp,

My underpants are damp

Everything will need to be washed

The drains are spilling over

There will be no swimming for a while

The water will be dirty

Nothing about this is funny

Other than the hardiness

Of the morning walkers

Heads down into the wind

Wet from top to toe

Splashing through puddles

Like recalcitrant anarchists

Obstinate souls

Like me

Refusing to grow old

Gracefully.