Everything that starts with F ... > Reviews (571)

FLASH FLOOD

I never saw a flash flood but I would know clearly that the Severn had pushed its boundaries out and spilled over the flood plains and the streets of the local city. I stood on the hillside in the late afternoon where normally you couldn’t see the river but when the floods were very bad I could see the water grabbing the sunlight and the edges of the flood. Down in the plain on the way to work on the bus and train I could see the river widening each day and hear the stories at work or in the pub of flooded houses and fast ruin. The emotional devastation was mainly in people’s eyes saying the floods have come all you can do is hold your nerve.

SWAM OVER THE FLOOD

He exists at the darkening time
so all my clouds have a coal, dust lining
those red, raw hands:
Through troubled, floods of years
I struggled and swam
And then I swam over the flood.