a blind man describes rain
rain brings the world alive orchestrates it out of darkness with no note ever quite the same no phrase ever precisely repeated and to no fixed score it strikes tickles sizzles on brain cells ad libitum ears catch and shape the disparateness of trees the cubism of buses cars they register the rush of gutter water the drip of edges the murmuring drum of a whole city a shoe-shop range of squelching footsteps taps out a backing to the precipitation of notes they people the manuscript with speculation open vistas of interpretation here’s a diamonded window press cheek to glass and each pane idiosyncratically rewards with coolness a kaleidoscopic wonder of liquid sounds the door is open and rain falls to the happiness of not wearing a hat an urge to throw off clothes and dance a wetness on the face which is not tears
Patricia Leighton, Collection ‘Hidden’, Oversteps Books, 2019
