These winds cause bitter fright,

This unseasonal-season of cold spells leaving one with goosebumps, when one should be bathed instead in sunlight!

Record rainfall & more overcast days ahead in store,

Hailstorms in May, who would have thought?

Am I over-reacting or scaremongering when it’s actually just ‘one of those things’?

But, isn’t that what the majority of the characters said in that film, 2012?!

Right- right- that was ‘just a film’, and the Mayans apparently may have got it wrong,

Though- I remain baffled & beg the question:- why am I freezing my bits off in mid-to-late spring!

I hear the birds-

Yes- the flowers have begun to bloom-

And, yes – the mornings are brighter and the sun doesn’t set until about 9 or 10!

And- the gardeners among us are keenly waiting to get out and plough their respective lawns (if only the incessant rains would stall),

But, I ask you:

What happened to the days basking in the sun, 

Where everyone wore shades,

And the girls wore less and less,

It was oh so much fun!

So: rain rain go away! 

Give a chance at least to all them bikini clad women to re-populate our spring days!

This shroud is actually a quilt of many weaves

Each weave is a compliment or criticism, turned into embroidery!

Each competing for your attention – 

In a dance of shifting, rippling, coalescing, translucent shades of mist, 

Kept together with a weave made of your sheer spirit & propelled by the strength of your conviction: 

A pattern – growing one way or other, as your popularity peaks by word-of-mouth or otherwise (along with your developing reputation),

Striking an equilibrium between these competing forces is however nigh on impossible,

And it is a folly to expect this delicate balance to be maintained for all time- 

(It’s an inconsistent weave in earnest to be appreciated in retrospect rather than in the present),

For all the stars in the sky, save for optical illusions, shine the brightest before they begin to decline, 

Therefore, do not seek out fame for, if you are true, it (& it’s counterpart) will eventually find you,

On that day & time, do not forget that it did not come to you overnight & stay true to the aforesaid, whatever else you do or have in mind,

My words are simple, the concepts less so, 

Hopefully, this sonnet, does not leave you overly troubled, for that it is not its intention-

But, just, simply, to enlighten you!

Keep your eyes peeled,

To inconsequential things;

A leaf caught up in an awkward gust of wind,

Tumbling and turning, mid-air, on a wet & cold day-

Like an acrobat pushing himself to extreme to impress judges, on the olympic stage-

To collide (for a fraction of a second) with the age-old face of  a driver of a horse-drawn cart,

Causing him to momentarily veer his horses right-of-centre from his chosen path-

A violent collision ensues like a roll of thunder that shudders you in your skin

With a four-wheel drive that would have otherwise sped by (had the old man held back a millisecond more)-

A driver lost in his own thoughts, struggling to see in a sudden uncharacteristic tropical downpour- 

The impact forced the driver’s vehicle to ricochet and come to a jack-knifed halt nearby (leaving him unconscious on his inflated front-wheel air bag),

Breaking two of the nearest horses legs, and causing the cart to fall onto its side into a ditch by the side of the road;

While one horse lay dying in the ditch, the other was already dead & still crushed beneath the weight of the first, 

Like his horses, the driver was not too long for this world it seemed:

The force of the collision had flung him a distance and some, where he lay paraplegically-still for either help or his time to come,

His reflections were fragmented, his face & body soaked through by the rain, 

With a pool of blood gradually forming beneath him turning the grass & sitting water a muddy-red,

He could still make out the screams of one of the two horses that were his pride & joy,

Such magnificent creatures he had raised from foals to mare

Tears brim and mingle with the rain;

A life begun as a farm-had, he wedded his first true love,

Together, they were blessed with four good sons & a girl,

And spent many good years together, during which she brought him much luck,

He bought a farm of his own and earned coin to hire many farm-hands of his own,

Ah, she was a sweet lass, he remembered…

For, three winters ago, she fell ill and passed away in his arms- if he was not mistaken, with a smile framing a still beautiful face in peaceful content, like when they were young,

O’ God, you giveth and then taketh away!

Leaving in its wake such bittersweet melancholy,

With those words, this old man did close his eyes to life’s glory & troubles for the final time-

For the driver of the four wheel drive had regained consciousness during the old man’s reverie-

And realising what he had done,

He (rather than call for or seek, help) chose to drive away

Condemned to his end, the old man’s body lay dead not too far from those of his horses, 

If you would look closer at his face: a hint of a contended smile (like that of his predeceased wife) framed his otherwise age-weathered face,

Still – a most unexpected & undignified end to a hard-fought, honourable, life-

Giving answer to the question that: there is no inconsequential things but just the random menagerie of life.