What does it mean when rain
Falls from a mostly blue sky?
A tree perhaps reserved last 
Night’s rain, to drop a reminder now. 
Yet that is too easy an answer. 
An omen of good harvests perhaps,
Or warning of coming drought when
Rain from anywhere is denied. 
Or something deeper, more telling
Than this faltering pen can find.
 
Digging down I remember a smile 
Given by a stranger on a bus in
Answer to tears traced down my cheeks. 
Another totem was the day an unearned
Letter grade passed me to Brit Lit II. 
There to find deep questions posed
By Masters with much to teach this 
Mountain girl who knew so well
There was much she did not know.