The Importance of Rain

Sometimes it rained: no one could really hear it

But it was dark outside, and no one wanted to go outside—

So they stayed in the house and played cards around a small table,

Lit by a dim, orange light that flickered and hissed.

One of them got up and went to the bathroom without saying anything—

Just got up, and left. The others did not say a word, but only

Looked up briefly, and then back down again.

The one who left did not come back, but went to a room and wept.

But no one else could hear the weeping against the hissing of the lamp.

The game went on and on, as long as the rain kept raining,

And the weeping kept weeping, and those who continued playing

Continued to do so—and they did, so the game could never end.

Sometimes it did not rain, and they would stand outside and watch

The clouds move like ships, or turtles, or fleets of rocks,

Shifting in the immovable pane of air; Blowing to and from

Somewhere else. They watched and never blinked,

Keeping their shriveled eyes on the whiteness, and occasional greyness,

And tried to reach at it with their hands.

They mouthed words like, “come,” or “here,” and sometimes “please.”

Please, please, yes, and the things that they watched would shake

And disappear, and they would weep silently for their useless,

Hopeless desires. It would now begin to rain again, usually,

Unless the sun dropped, and the world would then freeze,

And all the trees would become rigid, and fall,

As the world would grow rigid, and fall;

So they would become alive, and fall.

But if it did rain, then the earth would shake terribly,

And some god would emerge from the soil and cry out, “Ah, ah

Ah, ah,” and make the flowers spring up and dance a spring dance;

Infectious as it was, so that they would join in, hands held in a circle,

In rhythm with the beating of the rainfall and the burning liveliness

Of the ground. Rumbling, teasing,

Sifting the sand and mud, pumping out gold and souls—

Necks whipped back and hair electrified up—Until thunder came,

And the life was scattered and they fell silent and ran,

Like when a predator appears, and then the world would start to burn,

Lovingly, ensnared by the whirlwind of fire and water as one,

Joined by the air and the earth—so they dispersed

Into the farthest corners and yelped in bizarreness.

The storm then calmed when the same god came forth,

And said something no one understood, and the world held still.

So they came back out together and built something

Great and wonderful, something that no longer exists,

But something we still dream in all our dreams, if we dream.