Anna Couani #30 rain

it’s that part of the year
Sydney summer
when the humidity is so high
people are visibly sweating
cupping droplets from
their foreheads

the rain cools
but also humidifies
glossing surfaces

we talk about previous lives
could be other worlds
where a young pianist
started the local musical society
was a total dynamo
wrote all the parts
before there were photocopiers
got into the costuming even
then died young

we listen to songs from
The Gondoliers, The Mikado
songs like
A Wandering Minstrel, I
Take a Pair of Sparkling Eyes
and Mum remembers a lot of
the lyrics, strangely
from 60 years ago

they have some nice lines
but also some that don’t seem
to fit at all and
you have to rush the words
to fit the rhythm

funny to think of my mother then
in her 30’s
like Topol
powdering her hair
to turn it grey
or was that a wig
wearing a long black widow’s
type of dress

then Topol got old enough
to play Tevye’s correct age
in Fiddler on the Roof
and now Mum is actually old too