The Story of The Hurricane

(Greg and Stuart communicate on National Poetry Day 2008)

“Kent’s taken a bit of a battering”
I heard across the office as behind me
trees threw the sound of their brittle
autumn leaves at the window.

The Garden County once again
lay razed to a tangle of stubble;
memories of Michael Fish
instantly played-back the picture.

But his look had the look of a person
unexpectedly semi-detached and
perplexed with banging his head
on the sudden adjoining wall.

I caught the look and received
a blunt lesson in empathy
with our confused and elderly
clients with late stage dementia.

“NO” he said “IT’S KEN;
fallen off his bike again:
taken a bit of a battering”