the lament of the rain

the cats look on from their cozy perch/pleased to be laying
in the light of the sun pouring through the windows after days
of relentless rain/drowning the fields/submerging bridges/
playing a heartless song with the late autumn crops/toying
with love like an unbreakable knot/raising the ire on father
time and his merciless pledge to the clockmakers and time
keepers/while love swirls around them like a vortex/breaking
branches/casting off twigs/lambasting the liars and the
temperamental fiddlers strumming in a disingenuous measure
sure to gain the wrath of true romantics/and the young perfectly
suited couples wheeling baby carriages /the wind raising
the hackles on the backs of drifters sidestepping mudslides
left in the residue of the inconsolable rain/the cats rambling
to the floor/hissing and scratching/there’s a hurricane flooding
the house but they’re running around like children in the school
yard/fussing and carrying on/as shackles slip from hands/
as keys twist in old broken locks