Rain

RAIN

Warm gentle shower
bathes garden with tenderness
soothes and restores
flowers bloom in joy
robins twitter search for worms

but

torrential deluge
pounds flowers to the ground
devastates and soaks
seedlings flood away
even the robins hide.

and

umbrellas dance on sidewalks
shoppers splash from cars
farmers delight as crop grows
museums are crowded
no one plays in the park

as

road construction stops
baseball games are cancelled
taxicabs dart through the city
teachers bemoan an indoor recess
firefighters of wildfires rejoice

on a day of rain.


This poem is for Poets United Poetry Pantry.

The Way It Is

The Way It Is

The way leaves transition from green to to brown
The way old dog rests longer on a summer day
The way hair grays and the wrinkles form
The way strawberries rot after a while

The way seasons pass faster than before
The way the river flows faster and faster
The way birthdays would rather be ignored
The way each day of summer is savored

The way one time to good-bye is final
The way the coyote sings a mournful song
The way wild turkeys wander out of view
The way one hardly notices change.


This is written for Poets United Poetry Pantry.

Don't Worry!

Our Wonderful Israeli Guide who knew just EVERYTHING!

Don't Worry!

Our Israeli guide said, "Don't worry.  They are monitoring the situation."  We were told that if there was a siren we would have 40 seconds to get to a safe place.

"And where is a safe place?" we asked.

"The interior of a building, for example.  But most of the time the rockets do not get close to Tel Aviv.  But one has to be prepared."   He added, "And at the hotel, ask the desk clerk to show you where the safe spot is......so you know."

It seemed that Hamas was shooting off rockets.  Most of the time they landed closer to Gaza, but occasionally something changed. A house had been destroyed somewhere close to Tel Aviv the previous night.  The Israeli army (IDF) was retaliating. Our guide wanted to warn us.  He hoped the situation would cool. Of course, Israel had an 'iron dome' which was supposed to protect them.  It did...much of the time.

All of us on the bus were silent. And then someone asked, "How can people go about their lives when rockets are an ever-present danger?"

The guide answered that Israelis just go about their daily lives.  (And indeed we witnessed that.  Nothing changed.  People went to work, to school, shopped as usual.) He said that Israelis go about their lives in the same way that Americans do being surrounded by the constant possibility of gun violence.

And so we went about life too, but in the back of my mind was always the thought of 40 seconds.  I am home now, but still think about the 40 seconds.  I wonder if it would be easier to escape a Hamas rocket than a crazy person in this country with a loaded gun.

Written for Prose Pantry #3: Phobias and Fears 


The sound of sirens in Israel this morning - May 4   ---  in case you want to know what some people live with.  You can also see how protection by the 'iron dome' is supposed to work.