tuesday, april 27, 2021
there was a flood once,
and then it was years before
the sound of rain on a roof
for more than a few minutes
stopped being a reminder i didn't want
you'd see it in the people who
were there — one of those rare wet
days would set in and they'd
get a little nervous around the eyes
last summer we patched together the
failing gutters on this old house
and added a section or two
it was shoddy work and the lesson i
learned about gutters is next time
i'll hire it done, but they carry water
down to the ground better than before
now, nearing midnight, it's been raining
steady since before sundown
i can hear it streaming through those
aluminum troughs, probably pooling in
the low spots i can't figure out how
to build up, trickling down into the
crawlspace we'll have to fix for real
one of these seasons
and what i feel is just the old midwestern
calm of a roof overhead in weather
the quiet pleasure of being alive in a world
that's happening at some greater scale than mine
the grass all lifting up to meet it
the birds waiting to make riot at dawn
the rabbits huddled under the scrubby
trees in the fenceline
just rain on the roof.
i'll take it.