The Rain

I hear the rain and I remember

Counting thunder strikes

Dancing barefoot in the gutters and

Being forced to come inside.

Hiding curled under covers

Scared of lights and passing cars

Where we’d talk away our troubles

With whispered voices in the dark.

The raindrops remind me

Of when I wore white and never worried

About being caught in a summer storm.

Sinking ankle high in puddles

Playing soccer drenched in mud

Jumping into newborn rivers

Just for fun.

Those were the days of racing stick boats

Of ineffective rain coats

Of umbrellas forgotten on the doorstep

When you could leave home and never worry

About the weather.

No electronics to be broken

No textbooks to be sodden

Just you

The rain,

And the weather.