Rain All Day
It started just before dawn, relentless rain.
Ten inches today, seven by noon tomorrow.
Fast surging water and then flash floods came.
Rain in sheets thumping on tin róofs in staccato.
I moved to Kentucky from Tennessee in 2019.
I learned to drink Ale-8-One and bleed Blue,
wasn’t ready for skies full of rain in the obscene—
fifty inches a year versus Seattle’s forty two.
Horses are wading through swirling water in real time,
a church is swept away in Richmond. It’s mayhem!
I sit here taking the time to rhyme these little lines
because I can’t honestly make logical sense of them.
10 thoughts on "Rain All Day "
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I love how you weave movement throughout this poem. Moving to a new place. The swift movement of flooding. The way buildings, like the church you mention, are physically “swept away” in the swift water. I especially like the line “Rain in sheets thumping on tin róofs in staccato.” A rhythmic movement.
A breathtaking poem. It moves me!
“Horses are wading through swirling water” is my favorite image
O that’s what you did!
And the rhymes are seeping in like rising waters.
Love the double turn to thw 4th wall at the end.
It really does reflect the day and our process.
I love it.
You describe the chaos of yesterday’s weather and what we can expect today in such clear detail= the church, the horses, the thumping of the rain on the tin roof. I love the inclusion of the writing process into the last lines of your poem.
floods, fires, earthquakes, heat domes — nature is writing its own angry poem
Delightful, Linda.
I was in Hindman, KY when the 2022 flood hit. You caught the muscled energy of that experience “relentless rain.”, “Fast surging water” and “swirling water”, especially “”surging water”
Well done!
The image of you rhyming little lines trying to make sense of them reminds me of watching raindrops on a car window fall into accord with one another and also into mayhem. That was a terrible storm
Nature is a mad scientist for sure!
“Horses are wading through swirling water in real time,” – so beautiful in its simplicity!
The neighbors up and down Wagersville Road had to help a friend save his cows from drowning.