RAIN POEM

For Lowell, MA

By A. T. Halaby

Rain I have spoken of you many times

And suppose I may be distracted by

How I feel completely still and stopped

And without breath to beg to cough

Interrupt your motions

Your many multiplying sounds

If I am to bare my chest

You are my here and now.

Your voice against the windshields

Leather shoes and briefcases

Dripping off gloves and rain slickers

The chills come and stay quicker

And leave little teeth marks

Wet printed shadows

Like words vanished from a page

Like waking up and having no trace.

The patter on the pavement

From the umbrella off the nose

The traffic of the morning streets

Swishing along no place to go.

Your sound as full as an orchestra

A concert for all around

My body remembers you softly

As any beginning surely sounds.

Eyes heavy as memory makes them

As grey as the clouds above my house

As warm from any pure moment

As I stand for a final sound.

Inside listening to the chatter

The gossip in the trees

Green and anew, healed and defined

O memory you depart and return with shine!