Changeable

This one came from last night's 10-minute exercise at the Dunbar Writers. My prompt was 'hot and cold', and this is what I came up with. It's unedited.


Changeable

It was a warm morning
then a front went through
leaving hours of cool showery air
trailing behind it.

We had lunch in the garden
sitting at the table
with the wine, salad,
fruit and cheese. Balmy,

and then, little by little,
the wind rose, the sky
greyed over, and we were back
in the Pleistocene, felt like it.

The first spots of rain
evaporating on the paving,
released that smell of warm stone,
and then the spots stayed, grew.

We rushed inside, in a flummox
of plates, glasses, salt and pepper,
bowls of salads and boards of cheese,
to continue our meal inside.

You can’t recreate a picnic indoors,
the light’s not there, the sunshine
and the warmth gone, the windows
streaming with rain, chilly.

Colin Will
09/05/2013