torrential downpour

cloudbursts & mini-monsoons

take to the wind---swirling,

spinning round, curling &

surging against the trees,

against the sides of buildings---

swishing across the asphalt &

pitter-pattering on the roofs,

shedding cool where hot had been,

washing away the evidence of

an annoying sunny day

when everybody was dancing round in their

flip-flops & shorts,

like it was 1969 all over again---

but the heavy sprinkles turn to pelting

that tear at the thrashing limbs,

that dig at the dirt roads now filling up into

puddles, floating neath’ the trash in the

streets & flushing it down the gutter in

streams straight into the drains &

though this will only be a brief moment,

some complain away about the rain---

upset by its destructive qualities,

they keep to the inside & hope that

lightening & thunder do not follow,

for those loud dominant crashes &

electrifying strikes that can kill so easily

do nothing but spark fear in the hearts of

those commonly distressed by almost

everything---

but to embrace it,

to dance in the torrential downpour,

to let it coast all down the body &

cool the skin so that equanimity is established

between the environment & the physical qualities of

your own human being,

this is the way through,

this is the newness that prevails after the storm &

only stepping into it can bring on out of it.