A Prayer For Rain

You can hear the whisper of rain in the breeze feel it in your bones, taste it on your lips feel it on your skin, Please Dear God hear a prayer for rain... The parch earth thirst for rain the cracks have baked away into layers of fine dust A child's toes squeeze that dust, soft and dry. The ponds and streams have long dried The lakes and rivers are getting low Dryer than the Dust Bowl and the Sooners are average this year Crops have shrivel in fields salvage what you can for hay Farmers losing crops, ranchers selling herds Bulldozing deep into the ponds bed hoping there is water 18 months with hardly a drop, a few sprinkles now and than The small country church is full The men and boys with hats removed The preacher prays for rain Every head bowed every heart true. Decades ago small towns would pay Native Americans to perform rain dances and open up the skies Maybe we should try... The southwest prairie sky red with the dust of red clay Fingers of crimson scrawl across the early dusk sky The glorious sun melts into the horizon. Forecast for rain have been wanting Autumn waltzes in on a morning breeze A few sprinkles here but not there. In the distant darkness embraces as thunder crackles with arrows of lightning That night the thunder overhead, droplets of rain surge into a shower Sunday morning and the rain gauge shows 3 and 1/2 inches The little country church overflows, prayers of thanks and continue rain Forecast promises more, a prayer for rain answered.