Windy, Rainy June Day


I was bundled – slicker, boots, cap, umbrella –
Against the obdurate rain and the mischievous yanks.
The gray host surrounded me in serried ranks
And volleyed salvos that gusted into my paraphernalia.

I wanted to challenge chance, and so emerged
Into the blustering glazed world that splashed
Beneath my boots and pimpled the puddles lashed
With silver dear drops rippling then submerged.

I took hits, yes, but strode bravely onward,
Soggy but steadfast through the ruffling bursts,
Setting the angle of the parapluie at first
Against the raging pellets that rattled forward.

Then came the little swim-suited ones, hands splayed,
Faces gleaming, the rain streaming down their cheeks,
As if pennants of the conquering sky, and they took peaks
Beneath my canopy of protection and hotly played

A laughter that sizzled under the awning
And warmed me. They giggled and screamed
“It’s summer! It’s summer!” and beamed,
And so brightened, my midday began its dawning.


In Florida, June is hot, but the heat is relieved by rain and wind which sweep across the land in late afternoon.  Older people may don raingear, but children often do the opposite: shedding clothing and running out so the rain soothes their skin.  On rainy days, I like to put on instrumental music that is soft and slow because it seems to mix well with the falling rain.  I wrote this poem about two years ago, but in June on a rainy day.