‘The Rain 3’
@ Mr Humble
And it always seemed to stop around 5 or 6 a.m., peaceful then, but not an exact silence because things continued to
drip
drip
drip
and there was no smog, then and by 8 a.m. there was a blazing yellow sunlight, Peters yellow- crazy, blinding! and then the roof drains relieved of the rush of water began to expand in the warmth: PANG!PANG!PANG! and everybody got up and looked outside and there were all the lawns still soaked greener than green will ever be and there were birds on the lawn CHIRPING like mad, they hadn’t eaten decently for 7 days and 7 nights and they were weary of berries and they waited as the worms rose to the top, half drowned worms.
The birds plucked them up and gobbled them down;there were blackbirds and sparrows. the blackbirds tried to drive the sparrows off but the sparrows, maddened with hunger, smaller and quicker, got their due.
The men stood on their porches smoking cigarettes, now knowing they’d have to go out there to look for that job that probably wasn’t there, to start that car that probably wouldn’t start.
And the once beautiful wives stood in their bathrooms combing their hair, applying makeup, trying to put their world back together again, to forget that awful sadness that gripped them, wondering what they could fix for breakfast, and on the radio we were told that school was now open. And soon there I was on the way to school, massive puddles in the street, the sun like a new world, my parents back in that house, I arrived at my classroom on time.
Mr Goody greeted us with, “we won’t have our usual recess, the grounds are too wet.”“AW!” most of the boys went. “but we are going to do something special at recess,” she went on, “and it will be fun!” well, we all wondered what that would be and the two hour wait seemed a long time as Rossie went about teaching her lessons.
I looked at the little girls, they looked so pretty and clean and alert, they sat still and straight and their hair was beautiful in the coal city sunshine.
… MING CAMPUS SLAM
