Sheila Charles THE WEATHER
Friends often give me suggestions
About what I should write.
The latest idea – the weather –
I found it hard to be polite.
“Have you ever written a poem?” I asked.
She shook her head. I said, “Yes, I thought not.
I assume you – not a lot.
It’s either cold, windy or raining,
Foggy, drizzling or hot!”
Then it struck me, as thoughts sometimes do,
That most of us, when we meet,
Talk about the weather
On the bus or in the street.
I usually begin my emails and my letters in the same vein
By mentioning the weather. ISn’t it insane?
I wonder how Eskimos manage at the North Pole, where I hear,
There isn’t any weather THERE for at least six months of the year!
What do they start an interchange with?
“Isn’t it dark?” or “isn’t it light?”
Do they discuss their dreams?
For all we know, they might!
I suppose if we didn’t talk of weather, we’d be likely to ask, “How are you?”
then we’d get a list of ailments. It’s what most of us older folk do.
So, maybe, after we’ll just go with the flow
And say, “It’s colder than yesterday, “just in case someone wants to know
I wouldn’t mind but whether the forecast
Is short or exceptionally long
Most of us have had the experience
OF IT BEING TOTALLY WRONG!
illustration by ume-nori
