And the rain came over the city

AND THE RAIN CAME OVER THE CITY It Was In The Afternoon When The Rain Came the thunders rolled scattering the sky in all directions Before you, it never rained the little girl stopped growing she stood transfixed, on the woodplank walkway at the end of the stony steps where the moss continued to the edge of the lake In the shadow of the mountains her small hands tentative over her breasts she scanned the sky Southward Before you, it never rained the traffic in the City rushed as it still does each day and the din of lives unheard, uncounted filled the air Before you, it never rained the shark swam slowly on the floor of the ocean its eyes unblinking and dark its primordial brain remembered nothing Before you, all the water in the sky and all the things in between gathered and lay still in wait It Was In The Afternoon When The Rain Came the thunder broke over the outlying districts and the rain came over the City It flooded the earth and fed the children washing off their pain and sharpened their hearing they laughed again and again in the streets in the alleyways on the rooftops in the rain All the animals woke up from their sleep the cat scurried indoors, found its soft blanket, lay down purring lightly, it lay content it dreamed in colors, it dreamed of the love of the girl who rescued it from the shelter it smelled the promise of water It Was In The Afternoon When The Rain Came in the streets people hastily parked their motorbikes seeking an awning, an eave, an umbrella, an overhang, a tree the sheen of water played in the slivers of light on their faces The water came down in sheets filled the puddles, soaked the shoes wetted the socks and pantyhoses, the hems of dresses and trousers enveloped them in a cocoon of strangers. they smiled fleetingly at each other then looked out into the rain and hurrying traffic The rain continued, the people huddled a man looked over his shoulder a girl smiled, conscious they almost talked In the house where nobody had lived for some time and the window upstairs broken the rain soaked the letter left in the open drawer the writer now gone the ink bled into the watery embrace It Was In The Afternoon When The Rain Came out on the ocean bed the fish was unchanged it swam silent in the depth then rose through layers of darkness and light broke through the surface and saw the Sun for the first time It rose to the rain clouds unceasing and riding the wind and the rain it came to the world it never remembered but slowly recognized in its blind attraction to all the things between the mountain and the sea it headed for the City If it could sing it would even if the voice would rend its throat flood its primordial brain bathed in blood, songs, and alcohol it now reset its rhythm, like a bomb delirious It Was In The Afternoon When The Rain Came over the City it found its way to the Delta to the rivulets and streams to the tributaries to the large big river, swelling, bulging with Birth filling the world Rich in silt, the river turned amber for the season, flowing like the backbone of the alabaster body of the continent to the sea It Was In The Afternoon When The Rain Came Before you, the rain did not come to the City did not swell the rivers and lakes did not catch the fishes in silver flashes did not bring thunder. It Was In The Afternoon When The Rain Came In the gloaming the dragonfly comes home the stork flaps its wings slowly against the setting Sun and the fish swims on... Nov-Dec 2011 JD