tomorrow

i woke up this morning
and the sea was on my doorstep
the sea was on my doorstep
the sea was on my doorstep
yet my flat is on the second floor
so i looked out my window
to the town below
as the house is part way up a steep hill
but there was nothing but ocean
and now that ocean, was on my doorstep
but hadn't yet entered my flat
i could hear no noise, or voices
just the shrill of seagulls
i switched on the radio
but had no electric
and my laptop was old, and had no battery life
i had my mobile,
and wished i'd been smart enough
to have a smart phone
i also wished i'd been smart enough
to learn to swim.
i dailled 999 and got an auto reply
"due to the current disaster, this line is currently unavailable
please check out instructions on the internet
or local or national media"
what i needed to know immediately
was had the ocean level peaked, did i have time?
i checked again
and in the last ten minutes
the sea was still on my doorstep
like a wet dormant doormat
i put 'stuff' on my doorstep
to try to build a barrier of sorts
but already knew that this would be a fairly futile gesture
i looked outside my window
to check the sky
it looked like a nice day
and thankfully no clouds
and it was then
to my horror
i noticed bodies floating by
i pulled my roller blinds down
i took my meds, had to eat
i still had running water
so filled up everything, then used the loo
and hoped the flush was still working
it did this time
i desperately needed a cuppa
then remembered a basic camper stove i'd bought in the autumn
along with eight tins of gas
the first gas was a dud
but thankfully the second worked
who could i phone? all my siblings lived along this coast
and we were not in contact with each other
i sent a text to my daughter, just to let her know i was okay
i checked the sea level again
but the sea was still on my doorstep
it hadn't gone up, nor down
i pinned a piece of paper just above the level
and hoped it would stay dry
only half an hour had elapsed and no change
i then remembered i had an old wind up radio
so i started to wind it up for quite a few minutes
and first switched the torch part on
this worked,
so then switched the radio part on......