"Rain Song" by Khaled Mattawa

I’ve decided... no theme for May. I think we’ll take the stream of consciousness approach this month and let one poem lead to the next. There are so many poems worth reading that sometimes a theme is helpful in focusing while other times its restricting like a thick wool turtleneck sweater that fits too tight. It might keep you warm but you aren’t comfortable. Since it’s spring, we’ll take a break from our old wool sweater, put on a light cotton dress, and see what poems the spring storms blow our way...

Rain Song
by Khaled Mattawa
 

After Al-Sayyah

             The radio blares “Dialogue of Souls,”

and the woman who hated clouds

                          watches the sky.

             Where is the sea now? she asks.

Where is it from here?

                          What is its name?—

             this rain on a morning ride to school,

winter, my seventh year,

                          my father driving

             through rain, his eyes fixed on a world

of credit and debt. On the

                          radio, devotion to

             the lifter of harm from those who despair,

             knower of secrets with the knowledge of certainty.

Not even the anguish of those

                          years, the heavy

             traffic, cold and wind could have

touched me. I was certain the palm

                          holding me would be

             struck again. Chance allows

for that and for stars to throb

                          in reachable depths.

             Filled with grief bordering happiness,

I didn’t care if I was safe,

                          whether the storm

             was over, only that it came, the slash

of lightning, the groaning sky,

                          and the storms we made,

             how rain stripped everything of urgency,

how to the lifter of harm rise

             those who despair.

Found at: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/240904