Start with the sun
piled weeks deep on your backafter
you haven’t heard rain for an entire
growing seasonand making sure to face
due northspit twice into the red clay
stomp your silent feetwaiting rain
rain to bring the washing inrain
of reapingrusty tubs of rainwish
aloudto be caught in the throat
of the dry wellhead kissing your back
a bent spoon for groundwaterto be
sipped fromslow courting rainrain
that falls foreverrain which keeps
folks inside and makes late afternoon
babiesbegin to bury childhood clothes
wrap them around stonesand skulls of
dovesthen mark each place well enough
to stand the coming stormrain of our
fathersshoeless rainthe devil is
beating his wife rainrain learned
earlyin the bones plant these scare
crow people face downwing wing
and bony anchorthen wait until they
grow roots and skeletonssudden soaking
rain that draws out the nightcrawler
rain of forgettingrain that asks for
more rainrain that can’t help but
answerwhat you are looking for
must fallwhat you are looking for is
deep among cloudswhat you want to see
is a girl selling kisses beneath cotton
woodis a boy drowning inside the earth