Poets Corner

PLATONIC RAIN

18-06-2007

A couple of days of rain seemed to bring the West Midlands to a standstill. Just like a couple of days of snow/hot weather/average temperatures are prone to do. The Stirrer’s resident poet Brendan Hawthorne wonders what will happen when global warming hits.

A global spark

greenhouse ignition

sparks ark rumours

as architects of doom

peddle fear

through the gloom

just as Bush loses time

on omissions

and emissions and

lets Britain wallow

in ice cap

thaw-outs yet

sanctions the power

to put up

a periscope

in the vain hope

of sourcing salvation

A nation gurgling

under floodwater

as council chiefs

launch a flat bottomed boat

expenses extravaganza

and get caught with their

wetsuits off

letting drainage get as

constipated as

local government logic

Their rainy day

no maintenance

fix-it-when-it’s-broke

savings policy

blocks drains

allows litter filled

gutter gulleys

to burst into

gridlocks

diverting local

economy and

emergency services

through unchartered waters

Sailing them

up a bureaucratic creek

with no hint

of a compensatory paddle

Will they now slap

on a hose pipe ban

to keep water levels down?

Perhaps they’ll

dutifully add-on

a rainwater stealth tax

so we can just keep

our heads above it

and all this

from just

two days of rain

God help us all

when things

really hot up!