National Poetry Day

It's National Poetry Day today - Prince Charles was apparently on R4 Today reading a bit of Dylan Thomas - (!) and I saw a haiku pinned up on the tube. The theme this year is that wonder stuff, water, so here's my little rain drop contribution 

Flood

I almost drowned that day

behind the lock-ups where lilac pushed rude cones

and the ice cream van sang strange over the trees - 

we soaked ourselves in hours of kisses

hands wedged down the front of our jeans, touching

the place where skin became hair; the world heaved

doors bent from their hinges, foxes streaked and barked,

streaming out from god-knows-where,

bricks were rough against our backs,

and the sky was tight with gulls. 

We kissed until our edges ran

then I was racing down the alley, 

and she was kicking cans into the moon, 

leaving little dents of dust

and something loosened as I cried,

deep and dangerous as marsh, 

I couldn’t stop the wetness coming

I thought was going to drown

I thought the waters would take us all

swallow us down like quick sand.