Sweat and elephants

Last day of the Napowrimo challenge

I have to say it's been a fun ride,  but exhausting! The last challenge is to write a poem based on a weird fact, so I'm re-posting a poem I wrote on holiday which ends on a weird fact gleaned from Ripley's Believe It or Not.  With apologies to those who've seen it before.


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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