Patricia Leighton
Rain coming
The pale metallic glow of the sky
and the stillness
trees with their own clear
separate auroras
the infinitesimal bounce
of telephone wires.
Brown roofs, defunct chimneys
waiting
shrubs, straw lawns, dry borders
still and waiting
the weakest of rose leaves
trembling in anticipation.
Lowered skies, the first jewel threads
of rain on window pane
too thin to be seen on the new air
which brings
a gradual stirring of leaves
and branches.
Between rooftops the far horizon
gleams and lightens
rain becomes a visible faint mist
increasing
like a shower head opening
millimetre by millimetre
until it falls
straight
hard
thumping
finding its voice.
It batters greenery
dances off slabs
fills bird baths
and the dull earth opens
to this crescendo of wetness.
And someone
who hadn’t noticed its slow coming
suddenly hears sharp raps
on glass.
Page(s) 52
magazine list
- Features
- zines
- 10th Muse
- 14
- Acumen
- Agenda
- Ambit
- Angel Exhaust
- ARTEMISpoetry
- Atlas
- Blithe Spirit
- Borderlines
- Brando's hat
- Brittle Star
- Candelabrum
- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
- Coffee House, The
- Dream Catcher
- Equinox
- Erbacce
- Fabric
- Fire
- Floating Bear, The
- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
- Global Tapestry
- Grosseteste Review
- Homeless Diamonds
- Interpreter's House, The
- Iota
- Journal, The
- Lamport Court
- London Magazine, The
- Magma
- Matchbox
- Matter
- Modern Poetry in Translation
- Monkey Kettle
- Moodswing
- Neon Highway
- New Welsh Review
- North, The
- Oasis
- Obsessed with pipework
- Orbis
- Oxford Poetry
- Painted, spoken
- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
- Poetry Cornwall
- Poetry London
- Poetry London (1951)
- Poetry Nation
- Poetry Review, The
- Poetry Salzburg Review
- Poetry Scotland
- Poetry Wales
- Private Tutor
- Purple Patch
- Quarto
- Rain Dog
- Reach Poetry
- Review, The
- Rialto, The
- Second Aeon
- Seventh Quarry, The
- Shearsman
- Smiths Knoll
- Smoke
- South
- Staple
- Strange Faeces
- Tabla Book of New Verse, The
- Thumbscrew
- Tolling Elves
- Ugly Tree, The
- Weyfarers
- Wolf, The
- Yellow Crane, The