The river rises <br />and the rains keep coming. <br />My Papa says <br />it can't flood for <br />the water can run <br />away as fast as <br />it comes down. I believe <br />him because he's Papa <br />and because I'm afraid <br />ofwater I know I can't stop. <br />All day in school I <br />see the windows darken, <br />and hearing the steady drum <br />of rain, I wonder <br />if it wil1 ever stop <br />and how can I get home. <br /> <br />It did not flood. <br />I cannot now remember <br />how I got home. <br />I recall only that the house <br />was dark and cold, and I went <br />from room to room calling <br />out the names <br />of all those I lived with <br />and no one answered. For a time <br />I thought the waters had swept <br />them out to sea <br />and this was all I had. At last <br />I heard the door opening <br />downstairs and my brother <br />stamping his wet boots <br />on the mat. <br /> <br />Now when the autumn comes <br />I go alone <br />into the high mountains <br />or sometimes with my wife, <br />and we walk in silence <br />down the trails <br />of pine needles <br />and hear the winds <br />humming through the branches <br />the long dirge of the world. <br />Below us is the world <br />we cannot see, have come <br />not to see, soured <br />with years of never <br />giving enough, darkened <br />with oils and fire, the world <br />we could have come <br />to call home. <br /> <br />One day the rain <br />will find us far <br />from anything, crossing <br />the great meadows <br />the sun had hidden in. <br />Hand in hand, we <br />will go forward toward nothing <br />while our clothes darken <br />and our faces stream <br />with the sweet waters <br />of heaven. Your eyes, <br />suddenly deep and dark in that light, <br />will overflow with joy <br />or sadness, with all <br />you have no names for. <br />This is who you are. <br />That other life below <br />was what you dreamed <br />and I am the man beside you.<br /><br />Philip Levine<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-rains/
