raining in my heart

The skies opened up today. We've been watching for the rain like eager children listening for the sound of the icecream truck. At the moment we're in drought and living under water restrictions. It's been a few years now. They said on the radio a few days ago that the farming industry is two billion in the red over it, and that if it didn't rain this weekend, we could see the cost of our fruit and vegetables rise by as much as 20%. Timing of the winter harvest I guess.

It's not like we don't have clouds in the sky. We do. In fact most days the sky is filled with clouds. But like many decorative things, they're useless. Today's clouds paid all the overdue owing. It rained for about 14 hours straight - a good, steady, soaking rain that wasn't fierce enough to sweep away the topsoil the way the random summer storms do. I'm hoping the lawn will bounce back from its brown, emaciated state.

Meanwhile I'm haunting the house like a walking metaphor, as dismal as the sky outside. I'm not generally depressive, but like most people I have my dark days. This is more like a dark week, full of negatives: boredom, confusion, loneliness, frustration. But like the steady downpour outside, it was oddly productive. I wrote a good half chapter today when I haven't done any solid writing in weeks. I also finished the poem that follows. I was trying to contain it to a sonnet form, but ended up breaking the traditional rhyming scheme slightly. We'll call it poetic licence.

a new love

of late a happiness pervades
time together, so much to tell
yet I, afraid to break the spell
write of other escapades
that still reveal the calm she brings
her eyes, liquid dark, inspire
secret-telling, rich desire
and new ways of seeing things

stretching in my chair
as we talk on the phone
reaching back into the dark
as if to find her in the empty air
the former joy of time alone
forgotten laughing at her random remark

No I'm not waxing poetic over some girl. I wrote it from the perspective of a guy in a new romance because that's how I've heard about the relationship that prompted me to write it - from the guy. Ahh, there's nothing like living vicariously through the exciting lives of others. ^^

Anyway, a little rain is good for the land and maybe also for the soul.