Chapter 2

End of April and you suddenly see how green everything is:

green leaves on every branch.

The horse chestnut in thick growth;

white triangle tower of flowers.

In May dandelion seeds speckle the air;

try to catch them, wish, release them.

Late June and a wild lightning storm stabs<

in spectacular bolts of lightning; old Zeus back for one night.

The bleached blur sky criss-crossed

by the white scar-lines of jet exhaust.

A wet dark night;

rain only visible whirling in the orange lamplight.

Canadian geese sit around the pond,

heads tucked under wings, away from damp and night.

Dark clouds all crammed together

like people in a tube train.

End of October and your breath huffs out

thick and white;  lungs like a steam engine.

Early snow this year,

falling slow-motion as if amazed with itself.

Watch the snow falling from your bedroom window;

watch bewitched as it switches pace, direction, speed.

Wind in the pine trees all night; dark hands

whooshing, whooshing; the branches bent like wailing mourners.

Ragged squadrons of white gulls come over the downs,

Driving out local, lonesome crows, driven by winter coming.

Early December and your hands are cold,

the trees bare; a robin still sings somewhere.

A sharp December wind whips across your face,

slashing with ice and snow.

The bite of a mid-December winds

sends shivers down your spine.

In December you wonder where the winter came from

and realise you have forgotten the heat of summer.

Clouds in the sky, grey with the shame of snow

as a cold wind flows through them, pushing them.

Steam curls up from freshly cooked scrambled egg.

In whisps, it bobs and swirls; an Indian smoke signal.

Snow flakes like feathers from an exploded pillow case.

The slowly satisfying crunch of snow under the foot.

Rows of elm trees, thin and spindly

like naked old ladies, limbs up in protest.

In winter trees fat wood pigeons sit exposed,

quiet, barely moving on the bare branch.

White blossom like drops of paint splashed on the walls.

The painful music of rain: hitting stone walls, windows, car tops:

pelting, hard pattering, smacking and splattering.