The Long Rain

The long rain begins in the morning and by the time noon comes it’s afternoon in the sky.
No one is more desperate than I for water, the cold rain falling into the bay is for you
who give me what I need and keep what you need that I may have who knows what, not I
I know the sound of rain and the thunder and how lightning looks and what happens
to the water filling the ocean that comes back to fill a cloud with what will never stay.
Not long.
She takes off her clothes and walks into the rain, which loves her drop by tender drop.
She wants to know such things again. It may be too long a wait. He’s never going to arrive.
He’s still snared by the dream of the woman who left him and how to get her to come back.
Why should he stay inside with all he has clutched closely to himself and pray in his sleep?
Why do any of us? We are all men. A woman is everything. We have needs. We can love.
A little.

That’s all it takes for the sun to come out again and the birds to tune their instruments.
The ground animals come out of the ground, the woods are covered with drunken leaves.

(19 March 2011)

copyright 2011 by Floyce Alexander