Jane Draycott – This Storm

 

Jane Draycott
This Storm


This storm tonight has really stirred
people up: the street’s deserted,
cleared for the marathon of the wind,
the dry twigs setting off hotfoot,
the river of dead leaves lively as anything
racing up toward the woods and home.

Remember how you used to search
the forests, even in your dreams,
and how you used to say that what
by day seemed somehow muddied, hidden
like the mushrooms in the tangy earth,
by night seemed clearer like a running stream?

Hearing of your death today has got me
thinking how much I really liked you.