Some Downpours Poem by Madathil Rajendran Nair

When monsoons from South West and North East
Deluge us for over half of every year
Why is it that only certain downpours
Stand out in memory etched
Carved out like sculptures?

There was the one that came late in the afternoon
Far from the east, the clouds cumulonimbus
Looked like an array of caparisoned pachyderms
They advanced trumpeting thunder claps
Plunging the world in darkness
Unleashed their fury and set rindles in spate

Then there was the one which poured the whole day
Unabated without wind or thunder but several inches
Drowning and washing away huts, men and animals
And capturing headlines on the papers of the morrow

There was that beautiful one
Which came when sleepless you rolled on the bed
As the night listened like an attentive mammoth
Its ears and eyes focused like an arrow into the yonder
First it was a distant murmur, the wind didn’t whisper
Then an approaching roar over silent forests
Till the staccato began on the rooftop

Then again there was the midnight visitor
Least expected, materializing from nowhere
None, even the weatherman, could say where it originated
Windless, steady, pouring out for hours
With paced thunder and lightning as though preset
Pulling you out of your bed
On to the verandah to inhale
Its abundant aromatic spray
Where the moths would gather in glee
To perform around a silent kerosene lamp

Oh, such downpours are wonderful things
Praise be to the one who sends them
To fill our hearts with mirth
And etch unforgettable nostalgia in our memory
________________

P.S.: As Providence would have it, there is a thunderstorm raging outside as I am concluding this (22: 08 IST,23rd April 2015, – Combatore, India) .