rain

it hasn't been so bad i guess, 
just a lot of rain coming down, 
curtains of theatrical rain

refrain

furry bones 
find no rest in the schedule of rain, 
but it hasn't been so bad, bones washing
free, the slurry of earth and everything else, 
swept like sailors
unmoored, held to nothing, unrecalled 
in the new exposure

not too bad in the fields, the fertilizers flowing
to the algaed bay, not that bad 
politicos say (the dome of ooze never swoled so big,
killing seagrass and fish and crabs scratching up the docks for breath)
this death
but not too bad, can you sing it?

	not that bad
	awful bad, 
	not so awful bad

everywhere the twitchy loaves of ducks 
quack, paddling around mailboxes, 
having no trouble avoiding pets, flapping up 
coming down
to a mocking skid on the rising sound

not too bad or sad
we guess
it could be more or less

	the thing to worry most about,
	past the wet, the doubt
	is how we'll know we've had enough

lacking clouds, lacking breath




© Copyright 2003 Peter Chapman

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