Everything But the Rain

For three days

It looked like

It was going to storm

And you know what we got?

Everything but the rain

Had twelve men out there

Working ‘round the clock

Using up all my money

Because of what the guy

On the radio said

Twelve men

And not a drop of rain

What do you expect me

To say to all that?

The fact is—

The way you work the land?

It’s temporary

It gives you a little bit

And then it waits a few years

And takes what it gave you

Plus interest

The land is a shark

Just like the guys

My father used to gamble with

You don’t win

You just get put on a leash

And left to your devices

People look at me

And think they could have done better

A more educated man

Would have had it

All figured out

I know that’s what on

Their mind

But there’s no books

That talk about three days

Of black clouds

And low thunder

That turn around into nothing

They don’t teach you

How to parse what the weather man says

When he’s telling you

It’s going to come down
Like rivers

Your father’s lying in bed

Hooked up to machines

He can’t afford to have

And can’t afford not to

And he tells you

Which men to hire

Because it’s gonna rain

Even dying men

Don’t come

With wisdom anymore

I sit out on that porch

And I wait for it to rain

The wind kicks up

The trees shudder

But nothing

Just the promise

Of a nightmare

When I step off the porch

And spit towards the house

I notice the window to my dad’s room

Covered up with a black curtain

Mom must have done that

In the days since it happened

See, Dad didn’t live to see the rain

But he thought he was coming

He was sure of it

And if he knew

It never did

His soul would be lost somewhere

Even the lord wouldn’t be able to fetch it

So I try my damndest

To get a rain going

I call in the twelve men

From the field

And together we form a circle

Right outside that room

Where his body became a body

And nothing else

The black clouds separate

The thunder moves off

To some other unlucky bastard’s homestead

But I stand there

And one by one

Those twelve men

Go back to what they’re doing

One or two just go home

I’m not moving though

Not until I get my rain

The sun puts itself to bed

The crickets find their way

To the silence

A dog gives birth to a litter

And only two

Are going to survive

Out of the corner of my eye

I see lightning

Just a flash—but enough

Enough to keep me standing there

Enough to get

What was promised

To me