Rain is pouring down

On the pavement as I walk

Along the Derrygonelly Road

Back home from town

Big heavy drops thud down

Onto my umbrella

And run off its rim

Down the back of my shoes

A flurry of wind blows the rain

Into my face

Blinding me so that

I walk right into a deep puddle

That splashes up muddy wet splodges

Over my beige trousers

I manage to dodge back into the

bushes every time a lorry

goes thundering past me

and sucks the air from around me

then sends out an after shock

of putrid water in its wake

and lets me breath again.

Cars drive through the largest puddles

Sending a tidal wave over

The heads of unsuspecting pedestrians.

Covering them in a wet oily film.

The trees bend away from the wind

Sending out the last leaves of autumn

An orange and yellow leaf

The last on the tree

Holds on tenuously before

It allows itself to be blown into oblivion.

How long will it manage to stay on?

The sun sends a gentle light through a cloud

Over the tops of the trees

Contrasting dramatically with the darker trunks

That the light has not yet reached

A truck blasts its horn at me

Making my whole body stiff and shaky

I look up angrily

Hoping the driver can see my angry face

Why did he feel the need to startle me?

Is he warning me that he could run me over?

And flatten me like the rat I saw

On our side of the road

With its intestines spread out for all to see?

I had let my anger break the serenity

Of my resolve to be aware of each moment

I lost my equilibrium.

Why did I get angry so quickly?