his name

Poem #268 from a series of poems drawn from the imagination and collected as: a Bachelard reverie.

Back to Bachelard and me – Introduction

---

you cannot know
the weather

he said

you live in houses
huddled in a row for safety
in concrete
on tarmac

you are in shock
when a wet hand
of water
of rain reaches down
and slaps you
as though
you do not matter

I
I know this storm

he said

I know his name
I watch him grow
his temper swell

I see him

the old man mused

as he approaches closer
crying out
that he has come
for me

I am alone
my shack is small
and it is filled with holes
through which he sends
his early breezes

I name him Tempest
that makes him howl
no-one should know him
for what he is

but it was whispered
in his song
on a day
when he took my home
and the world
away

I name him
Devastation
to make him shriek aloud
and cry

he named me
Defiance
blew me down
then he whistled himself
away

yes
I know this storm

you
huddle closer

it may be yet
you could
be safe

---

© Frank Prem 2018

Bachelard and me Poem #269: the balloon