In this town we only get one kind of rain. Perfect. Perfect rain. Can you imagine, perfect rain? It starts so lightly that you're not even sure it's happening; the drops land lightly on your head, as though with parachutes. Eventually, every one starts to notice them. The drops neglect their parachutes and fall with muffled thuds onto the pavement, freckling it. People take cover under trees and pray it will stop. But in this town there is only one kind of rain, and it doesn't stop here.

iIt rained today when

You left and didn't come back

Saying "Don't wait up."/i

The sky-diving droplets continue until the whole sidewalk is dark with them. They begin to fall thicker and fatter; they work their way through the leaves on the trees, knocking one another down onto the people taking shelter below. It's better to keep walking anyways. People open their umbrellas. The fat raindrops fall faster as the fat clouds tint the sky darker. A cool wind blows the drops against the houses, and children sit at the windows to trace their journey down the glass pane. Rumblings of thunder signal everyone still outside to walk faster.

iI noticed today

Your flowers aren't blooming now

The way they used to./i

The darkest cloud grumbles and shakes, then rips open like an old tee-shirt. The rain tumbles down in sinkfuls, pooling and flooding in the streets. It pummels leaves from the trees to the ground. Driveway chalk masterpieces are drowned in it. The wind shuffles it along the street in curtains. Muddy streams flow out of the drainpipes and into the gutters.

iBut the rain still falls

If I'm with or without you

I can dance in it./i

The wind pushes the clouds across our town, and bit of blue sky framed in grey peeks out between them, if you're there to see it. The once ferocious raindrops make peace with the coming sun and recede, at least until the next town. The drainpipe rivers thin out and slow until they are just a steady drip. The puddles become still, and the muddy streams make a last dash for the gutters. Renegade drops plummet to the ground around the people who dare to venture out again. Drenched trees shake their baggage onto the sidewalk with a passing breeze.

iYou say you left but

I am no one's only one

I don't stay for long./i