The Wild Winds of Wales
And things would go rattle. And things would go creak
When the Wild Winds of Wales blew in for the week
From Monday till Sunday you could always depend
That whatever was outside would be turned on its end
For out in the garden things went spinning around
With chairs overturned and the bins upside down
Umbrellas and toys and buckets and pails
Would be sailing off skyward by the Wild Winds of Wales
And if it wasn’t nailed down it would likely take flight
And go crashing around in the dead of the night
For the wind how it whistled and kept us awake
Though safe behind doors even the doorknobs would shake
I once saw a cow that had surely grown wings
For it lay on its back under a blanket of things
With its feet in the air, all four not just three
It was covered in flowerpots as if cast out to sea
And things would go rattle. And things would go creak
When the Wild Winds of Wales blew in for the week
The clothesline shot off with its pegs still intact
And it never came back. And that is a fact
Then the trees shook their leaves and the rivers ran wild
A bit overwhelming for a such a small child
As pine cones went bashing off the roof of our house
And a broomstick flew past carrying six moles and a mouse
The sheep in the fields were now up in the trees
Having lost all their fleece I was sure they would freeze
And the birds how they cackled, how they crowed and went tweet
For they all were now airborne having been blown off their feet
And I remember the look on my poor father’s face
When he saw that his car had a new parking place
For there in the fracas it looked more like a boat
With its upside now downside it was trying to float
Not to mention my mother’s look of dismay
When she saw her begonias go tripping away
The dog started howling and was chasing its tail
Till it tripped over the baby who had swallowed a snail
But then in an instant it all settled down
And the winds flew off to Scotland as things fell to the ground
The cow got on her feet while the sheep plopped from trees
But without their warm woollies they all started to sneeze
And the dog stopped its barking and the birds found their legs
And mother’s favourite dish towel returned with some pegs
The car it was hauled out – not much worse for wear
And a new bed of begonias sprang up over there
And the chairs and umbrellas were all put in the shed
And of the moles on the broomstick, only one of them was dead
So we buried it in the garden and covered it with moss
And said a short prayer for the mole family’s loss
Then we got back to business as one often does
Never quite forgetting the week that just was
When all things went rattle. And all things went creak
When the Wild Winds of Wales blew in for the week