An Outbreak of Love

By Andrew Hunter

When the rain gently came,
Of course, it seemed
Like the end
Of something –
perhaps

Time to put your head down? Time
To quietly lower your eyes, let
Your brows crinkle, your face
Give way to some puzzled
Frown? For when

The rain came, gently it seemed
The illusion of sunshine and warmth –
Some idea of a gorgeous summer, come
Months and months too soon – had
Failed us.
Having lifted

Our cloistered spirits,
Opened our catacombed minds;
Having placed a loving hand, kindly
On a winter shoulder, stooped, a head
Shaken, a mind quite bowled over; the sun,
Our one apparent flame,
Withdrew.

But the rain –
That gently cleaned the emptied streets –
Reminded us of time, of seasons,
Turned our eyes inside to quiet corners,
Forgotten reasons,
Ageing lovers.

When the rain came, we turned
With gentle hope again
To one
And other.

I live, work, write and am locked down working from home in the east end of Glasgow and have had poetry published by Northwords Now, the Cinnamon press in Envoi, a New Ulster, a couple of themed volumes by Robin Barratt and in Poetry Scotland’s former web vehicle The Open Mouse.  

It was written around June when, after the tight lockdown, in which we had lovely weather here in Glasgow, things were allowed to open up – and yet ironically the weather changed and rain came!  It should be pretty self-explanatory from there, depicting thought-expressed-feeling response to the circumstances.