deep summer

tonight of all nights

tonight when i should be working working working

i slip down to the piers and jetties among the fisherman

sitting in the gentlest softest rain that falls from the white night sky

in the softest touch on my face infinite droplets

my black umbrella above like a crow i go along the bridges

under wavering lights dimly humming with moths

the spray drifts to earth slower than snow

a fugitive from myself i slink into the alleyways and trees

i shrink from my shadow which almost cannot be seen

i reach in my pocket and caress the raised ridges of a credit card

the water in my shoes is warm i slosh along then pleasantly

the label in my shirt sometimes scratches my neck and distracts me

everything i see or feel or hear keeps passing through me

i love everyone i see although it is very very dark now

the loving rain coaxes the plants from the soil

the loving sun pulls the water up from the sea

the merciful clouds raining their miraculous gifts

sometimes lightning thunder and hail but not tonight

under my own authority i have skived off work

i run across vast coastal plateaus soaked through my nine lives

people stop me to say things but the lovely rain muffles the voices

i look at their faces so soft and wonderfully dim

under the arc of the clouds

under the blankets of a  hazy darkness

cars streak past in street with gurgling gutter

impression of drain moving under us swollen in flood

impression of some beautiful cat eating some bird

impression of sobbing child about to give up forever

my encyclopaedic brain with many pages missing

i abandon my boots barefoot on the pavements

walking and walking wherever i’m going

impossibly quiet in the lanes near the sea

i suddenly wish i was home

alone in my scruffy room with guitars and pastels

and the sound of my fridge purring away in the heat

i would sit at my keyboard and type type type

i would come up with something

i’d be safe and i’d be warm

i could lay down and sleep

and then

i would be free