Come flood with me, sandbags remove,
and see, at sea, cold water mark
centennial records improve
while frogs swim stark in Regent's Park.
Come flood with me, some float, some sink,
from Tower Hamlets to Soho,
while politicians think they think
of ratifying Kyoto.
Come flood with me, free bottled water
we'll airlift in to friend and foe,
though dikes may fail, though many caught a
cold, we'll sneeze at ebb and flow.
Come flood with me and blow a fuse
as volts revolt against the rain,
we'll kayak hire, o[a]r two canoes,
admiring drops on window pane.
Come flood with me and Oxford ford
as Father Thames mourns broken banks,
insurance premiums we'll afford
and brave weather forecasters' pranks.
Come flood with me upon submerged
parks, gardens, surf above each fence
as climate policies are urged
by governments in self defence.
Come flood with me, we'll breast Time's tide,
while Athens roasts - forty degrees -
and wonder what antiques abide
upstanding with untarnished keys.
We could write on in frothy verse
till 'lowing herd winds o'er the lea'
if only skies would not rehearse
wet dreams with clouds' infinity.
Come flood with me until Big Ben
sounds five o'clock and adds a tease,
while seeking honey-bees again,
and is there honey still for teas ?
If these delights your heart may move
to leapfrog over slip_stream puddle
we'll cuddle, challenges remove,
reign far from politicians' muddle !
Author notes
Rupert Brook(e) - The Old Village, Granchester -
"Stands the church clock at ten to three
And is there honey still for tea" Final lines
http://www.bartleby.com/232/701.html
___________
Lowing herd winds slowly o'er the lea - Thomas GRAY - Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard*
http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?text=elcc
_____________
Come Live with me and be my love
Christopher Marlowe
The Passionate Shepherd to His Love
Come live with me and be my Love,
And we will all the pleasures prove
That hills and valleys, dales and fields,
Or woods or steepy mountain yields.
And we will sit upon the rocks,
And see the shepherds feed their flocks
By shallow rivers, to whose falls
Melodious birds sing madrigals.
And I will make thee beds of roses
And a thousand fragrant posies;
A cap of flowers, and a kirtle
Embroider'd all with leaves of myrtle.
A gown made of the finest wool
Which from our pretty lambs we pull;
Fair-lined slippers for the cold,
With buckles of the purest gold.
A belt of straw and ivy-buds
With coral clasps and amber studs:
And if these pleasures may thee move,
Come live with me and be my Love.
The shepherd swains shall dance and sing
For thy delight each May morning:
If these delights thy mind may move,
Then live with me and be my Love.
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Comments
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Wonderful...as I read this I could not help but think of the flooding here in the Midwest. Politicians nowhere to be seen, yet neighbor helping neighbor abounds. With smiles comforting tears.
Today in the prison "rec" yard. A woman found a tree frog...to the shock and awe of the other inmates. Then to a chorus of squeals I took the delicate creature n my hands to the freedom of a tree on the other side of the barbed wire.
Wonderful write that can invoke such a chain of thought!
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This is a wonderful parody and I would one day like to make a serious attempt at writing something in a similar vein. This particular one describes so well the circumstances of the weather situation in England at the moment, with homes flooded, electricity cut off, fresh water supplies polluted and cut off, crops spoilt, those on boats are stranded because they aren't allowed to move while the rivers are so high and even deaths of those trying to pump water out of buildings. This is the worst flooding the UK has seen for 250 years and your poem descirbes it all so accurately. I'm impressed
. Rewarded 8
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