Reflecting on A Summer Rainstorm

I remember that warm summer's day

When the skies were overcast and forsaken

When there were no worries, no cares

When delicate little raindrops, warmed by the sun

Fell onto our faces, glistening wet

Our shirts stuck to drenched bodies,

Hot from the climbing temperatures –

Sixty, seventy, eighty degrees.

And we twirled and twirled, eyes closed

As the rain poured down,

Relentlessly down.

The trampoline, that giant rubber skin

Stretched taut for our amusement

Was wet, too, and with every bounce,

We struck upon it, falling like

Marbles on a snare drum.

The boom of the impact marked time,

Adding thunder to our rain dance –

Boom, boom, boom

Crash –

The real thunder cracks, and our joy ends.

And I peer out the window, rain lashing

The panes like so many furious vines

And I remember the time when it was gentle –

The thunder dies down, the rain softens,

And the trampoline marks time.