Fire and water

Fire and Water 

 Another poem written about sunbathing while I was on the cruise. It's fair enough to say I'm missing it,  after my return home to snow and biting wind.

Sitting on a sunbed in the middle of the Atlantic
Sizzling in the thirty plus degree heat
Of a January morning
My skin is on fire,  sweat running in rivulets,
I'm a wax effigy, slowly melting.
In a strange reversal
Of an English midsummer sunbathing session
I find I'm scanning the sky for the relief of a cloud.
After three days at sea I've decided
The best sky for sunbathing is a thin layer of cotton wool
Stretched thinly over a blue,  blue sky
Allowing brief moments of intense heat to punch through.
Or like yesterday,  isolated grey clouds
Bringing short, sharp showers
Sprinkling cool rain onto too-hot skin.
Drifting away in a heat - induced stupor
I'm suddenly laughing at a memory:
Each innocent cumulus cloud
Can contain water droplets weighing the same as eighty elephants!
I hope they don't all fall on me.

© Copyright 2018. Chris Auger. All Rights Reserved.

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