All I’ll Say Before I'm Struck Down for Wishing Away This Weather
Something else I don’t like,
and I’ll have to whisper this,
is the incredibly hot weather
we’re having here right now.
I wouldn’t mind a drop of rain
or at least a few clouds in the sky.
It seems like there’s no shade
anywhere. The sky is just
too expansive when it’s always blue.
I like the clouds, their shifting shapes,
the changing colours in the sky.
I love the mist, the gentle wind,
the long bright evenings
that last until eleven. I even adore
the birds and sun waking me at dawn,
which these days is about four in the morning.
But this heat is all wrong. For this
I need to be on a beach in some country
where people speak a language I don’t understand.
Where I can wonder about what they’re saying
and be glad I don’t know because they’re probably
only talking about what they’ll have for dinner.
Or maybe they’re making fun of me, alien in their midst.
Oh, just to have a few clouds again!
Jennifer O’Riordan, originally from county Cork, Ireland, now lives in Greece. Until 2019, she was the Assistant Director of Irish Studies at Catholic University, where she also taught French and Irish. “All I’ll Say Before I'm Struck Down for Wishing Away This Weather” is her first published poem.
