Ode to Clouds

My head aches
and a thumping migraine
fills my head
as though of too much beer I had imbibed
on raucous night, just gone

Not just through envy of some cloud filled sky
Being so cool and cooling
in its cover
that I, sweltering in this unseasonal heatwave
of endless scorching hazy blue skies
Pray for rain with soreness of head

Oh for a black culumonimbus
that hast been gathering for many many days
smelling of damp, cold and thunderous rain
booming, crashing and lightening flashes
full of watery downpour
and refreshing wetness
with massive raindrops, falling on drying leaves
and glorious wet head
that I might stand and drown delightedly
and luxuriate in the refreshing water

Or a nimbostratus would just as well suffice
Thick and grey and featurless
the cloud that gives all other clouds a bad name
which those who know no better call depressing
so, come now nimbostratus
cast your grey dullness over
and rain your never ceasing rain down earthwards
let a dark ominous sky appear
and I will welcome your copious precipitation
steady and lasting for many many hours

Even a cumulous would do right now
Its fluffy wonder shading this raging sun
providing some relief from heatstroke, headache and sunburned frazzled nerves
and to animals, big and small, birds and garden snails

I would even take an alto cumulous concoction
Prissy cloudlets forming clumps or rolls,
white or grey cotton wool balls in the sky
often looked at and greatly admired
and harmless they may well be

But, I pray, let them develop distinct turrets
with bumpy tops which resemble crennelations
and the chance for them to grow into castellanus
which often can forecast unsettled weather

But spare me please the sight of wispy cirrus
These taunting strokes of nothingness – delicate brush-strokes in the sky
providing neither shade nor relief from blazing sun
Unless they are to thicken and spread across the endless blue
and start a cloud progression that
lends itself to rain in a day or so
but I havn’t seen that happen in quite some time

So I sit and wait with sun hat on head
and panting dog in shade
and pray for cumulonimbus

© Imelda Doyle, 18th July 2013