Rain on a Tin Roof

Rain on a tin roof


Rain on a tin roof, Tintagel fifty seven
You said, in a drizzly roadside cafe
First stop after the Twelve Apostles
And I stepped in through memory’s window

Or a taste will do it, Proustian Madeleine
Like Heinz salad cream on Little Gem
I hear Arlott’s rounded Hampshire vowels
But you’d have the score and last man in

Pineapple mayweed, Stratford, my cousin Ann said
Smell- we sat among patches of this
In Primary playground, threading chains
And I remember too, shared sweetness

Some moments- Cuban missiles, terrified to school
My father’s news, Kennedy is dead,
Mandela walking free, Obama
In village India- will stick fast

But by the Southern Ocean, sketching Monkey puzzle tree
Strident local accents in the air
I wonder at memory’s lottery
Choosing what is lost, what will remain

March 23rd 2009, Bell’s beach, Great Ocean Rd.