Rainy Wishes: a poem
In her second poetry column, Matilda O’Callaghan evokes the feeling behind a classic British weather phenomenon

And on a darkened night
The rain is a river in the cobbled street,
Passing by houses of people we’ll never meet
I follow the double yellow lines round the curb –
No time to be disturbed, for thought to cease.
But I wish to feel each inch of my foot
Rolling softly on the ground
Yet that’s never fast enough;
I don’t actually want to be found…
I wish to stop and let the rain caress me
Yet still then, each drop is sea-bound and
I cannot bear to stop at this red light
Because stopping here means falling off;
Trying to exist, as day merges into night.
I know the world exists
In connections, in flows, in goes
But I wish the water didn’t diverge
And we didn’t have to walk alone.
Each droplet now a brimful bath
Encasing it all, smothered in foam.
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