Rain Cento

The great light cage has broken up in the air,  
The leaves lie thick upon the way 
Of memories.

I want to fall on you like rain
To let you almost taste
a pretty girl yawning
and frogs in the pools 
singing at night

There will come soft rain and the smell of the ground,
sliding down windows like notes on air
freeing, I think, about a million birds

The nights I love glisten with rain

(Lines selected from Elizabeth Bishop “Rain Towards Morning,” James Joyce, “Rain Has Fallen All the Day,” Robert Rorabeck,”A Flower in the Rain,” Kobayashi Issa, “In Spring Rain,” Sara Teasdale, “There Will Come Soft Rains,” and Phillip Shabazz “Franklin Street.”)