Stormy Weather

This week we had a warning, news, images, speculation A storm will come to us from the west, strong, hard, angry And so we waited, breath held, how strong, damaging? Fearful maybe The sky foreboding, clouds fast and deep dark blue and grey Then it starts, rain, trees begin to shake, branches waving, then falling Watching geese trying to land in a field, with flailing wings eventually coming to ungraceful rest The wind gathers strength, howling, coupled with dusk it magnifies effect Surrounds us, envelopes us, gathering speed, louder as our local world is buffeted Shaken house, listening to banging shutters, was that a branch on the roof? Unending noise, as we lay in bed warm protected, yet feelings of a vulnerable life We cannot control this power of nature, only trust that we are safe Awed by the might of this storm as it holds sway over us Hour after hour it rages, plays havoc with the land, scouring all before it Somehow, we sleep, the tempest outside our window Until we wake, to blue skies, sun, all revealed to us, the evidence of the night Exposed in the light of day, remains of trees cleaned of dead wood coat the ground Clouds still scudding, fast as a jet across the sky and then as our world darkens It begins once more, a return of the wind, the rain, the roar brief, and then still We must be in the eye of the storm, waiting for the next instalment Of the stormy weather.