When the rains continued the rivers rebelled, the swans moved inland
and even the bank was sandbagged and we saw images of villages
cut off and deserted schools and people being carried out of old folks
homes and the cathedrals that somehow began to look like galleons;

and as each day drenched we began to wonder how trees remained
tethered by root systems and there were stories of people who refused
to leave their cottages and a man and his dog got stuck in a chimney
and from a distance the Malvern Hills began to look like an island.