First Rain

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During the night it woke me, drip drip dripping

like a clock, like a tear, a spreading puddle
changing all my plans into soggy sponges.

But during my 9:00 A.M. race through the hills
to the fields of soccer games,

the blinding ochre and straw hills
shot out wet and gleaming
patches of sun in the spaces of sky.

before the earth warmed,
before the air dried.

Tangible breaths of the invisible
rain-soaked air awakened a thirst
I did not know I had:

charged by the smell of the wet ground,
damp dust, and growth
wicking a sip for the first time.
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-All rights reserved

Rain is good, but sometimes...

Summer began after long drives through passes
glistening with new grass, after she withered and writhed away from me.
I re-learned to dance in the sun, drenched with sweat from the light-play through leaves,
unstoppable, in a little excess.

Anticipation of the forced end
of summer walks, morning rides, and evening jogs,
keeps me in bed, nowhere to go, no dry path ahead.
With a little attitude, a little rain or not.

This winter cold makes me feel old,
and stuck in the bed, while a light rain is taking hold
of the pounding ache in my head.
A little cold, a little rain or not.

It’s reverberation is impossible to ignore.
To move would be to give up
the pelting percussion outside my French doors.
A little rain never stopped anyone.

Before the rush, the arguing
over the line to the bathroom,
and the news blaring one notch below the rhetoric,
Oh to hear a little rain a little longer.

So here, halting the day, hidden away, without a contingency, without an elixir,
Without the mix of light in the expanse,
A little bit away a little while longer,
A little rain never stopped anyone.

(Epilogue:
So if you reach out and I reply with a long furtive hug,
or if I only heard the question the third time,
while looking past you to the grey curtain, remind me,
A little rain never stopped anyone.)

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(from a dark day 1 year ago, now I love the rain, the changes, the clearing of the excess, the new growth of all life sprouting ...see the Haiku to come....)