Wistful throughout, Max, which is a nice touch. Of course, I waited for the title to appear... but the final stanza did the trick anyway...
Doug
On 2012-09-05, at 6:28 AM, Patrick McManus <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Max I see you all running hot feet steaming in the rain -is the tail wagging
> yours or the dogs?
> Cheers P
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Poetryetc: poetry and poetics [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
> Behalf Of Max Richards
> Sent: 05 September 2012 09:14
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: 'Reader, I walked them.'
>
> I tell the dogs wistfully:
> there is no possibility
> of a walk today.
>
> Neither dog is a fan
> of Charlotte Bronte
> and her orphan Jane:
>
> the allusion
> is wasted on them -
> and on you, Reader?
>
> My voice induces
> hopeful tail-wagging.
> Still the rain is
>
> sheeting down,
> the sky dark grey,
> and us stir-crazy.
>
> Enough of cozying
> up with a good book -
> or gnawing an old bone -
>
> then dozing off!
> Well! - this being not
> chilled Yorkshire but mild
>
> Melbourne, clouds now
> part, rain ceases,
> everything gleams
>
> under fresh sunbeams.
> Let's go! first hot-foot
> to the park creek
>
> in full brown spate
> under the footbridge
> surging to the lake
>
> to be cool calming
> and collected.
> To think how long
>
> it didn't flow - that eight-
> year drought of ours
> when we pined
>
> for downpours like
> those we grumble about
> now! when we wondered:
>
> will Melbourne ever
> again have green lawns?
> when the panicky government
>
> installed huge pipe-lines
> to filch inland water
> for the city, began to build
>
> vast desalination plants.
> Enough already - since
> rain came, dams and lakes
>
> are flush or fullish,
> snowfields snowy,
> rivers healthy;
>
> the grass is stealthily
> growing far too fast -
> for a time, for a time.
>
> Meanwhile enjoy
> an hour, a half day
> of bright possibility.
>
> The dogs wag tails.
> Water dogs is what they are:
> they'd gladly plunge
>
> webbed fore-feet first
> into the lake right under
> the sign warning them not to.
>
Douglas Barbour
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