The Night I Fell Like Rain

You had that future retro look: two thousand seventeen, There was a slow and sultry permanence, a little slouchy lean As you eased out of the taxi before it shot off to the right, Who could have predicted what was goin' down that night. Your totemic injunctions had me circled all around, You acutely walled the sky off, left no escape route underground, You had me penned tight in the doghouse, you could take me to the pound, You were non-responsive until I proposed our sorrows drown. I said I knew a house of brew, a joint of many gin Where all ice would be broken through, where inhibitions would wear thin Enough that we'd abandon ruse and hauteur, Whatever were our drinks of choice, we'd pound 'em down like water. There we were with truth in hand, it was a pub down by the shore, But it seemed like what I'd planned out wasn't working anymore. My river of charm didn't lack words, you were just too wary, You talked and walked me backwards, up every tributary. There was something to this watery theme, to you it seemed to please, I remarked how strong a drink seemed, you said my glass you'd ease. Your finger wavered in a blur, now was the sauce polluted? I took a taste and sure enough - perfectly diluted. I would have sworn that I saw droplets form within the air, And fall into the blessed vessel, to caress the dear gin there. Indeed I could have stayed all night, but you promptly punctured that baloon, You paid the bill, pulled me upright, marched me away from the saloon. Did you have a halo, the faintest rainbow hover there, The gentlest gauzy prismatic glow that almost touched your hair, The eye was instantly drawn to you, of that there was no doubt, No wonder so many people were getting their smart phones out. Twenty-seven pug dogs also trotted out because They were hilariously exuberant and light upon their paws, Faces all bright, with rumps and claws that increase social media views, Their wagging tongues and happy jaws were gonna make the news. And all the oysters and the clams rose up upon their hocks To pour out of the tavern doors and run along the docks. Perhaps I should have told you that these were seafood bars, As arm in arm we walked along, to the whispering sand and stars. Now you didn't have a tail, but there might have been a siren song Playing airily in the background, a delicate treading from right to wrong, And the softest kiss that could ever be, you gave me upon the beach, I felt somehow removed from myself, like I was out of reach. You put your arms above your head, oh - 'twas a sinuous view Of all your harms, my newlywed, as the world twirled anew, While sand devils and waterspouts spun mad in insane art, I felt myself vaporize as I was swiftly pulled apart. Born fast aloft, cloistered, rising on a cyclone's gyrating surge, I coalesced as moisture, into droplets I did merge. Then foul gravity - ever greedy, ignoble and vain, Upon the sands of all the souls, my body fell like rain. Yes, gravity - the evil one - took my flight away from me, If you will forgive a pun, I needed my anti gravi tea. The horizon was all dread dark clouds and thunder's threatening roar, From the rage it was apparent that this storm had been beaten before. So - if I was used to quench the thirsty sands then it was no great fraud, My last awareness was hearing, 'Daughter of the River God.'