Deliverance on a Wet Afternoon

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._N._Taber

Sometimes even a wet afternoon can be inspirational. Besides when did the weather ever put itself out to accommodate the life and loves of us human beings?

Photo taken from the Internet

DELIVERANCE ON A WET AFTERNOON

Sat on a park bench in the pouring rain,

letting ripples on a pond run circles

in my mind, wondering if I had the energy

to pick myself up yet again from crises

life thrown at me like confetti at a groom

though barely room for love in a heart

forever running circles across the mind 

like ripples on a pond in rain soaking

my clothes (good camouflage for tears);

you sat by me and we began chatting

as if we had known each other for years, 

yet we were strangers, and your voice

eased the pain running circles in my mind

like that pond’s ripples in a pouring rain

that brought you to me and helped me feel

my way through to (finally) breaking free,
for there’s no pain we cannot rise above
if we but believe in ourselves, each other
and the healing power of love

As you listened and took my hand, I felt

my fears start to ease, sun breaking through

dark clouds where a rainbow shone for us

one lonely, lovely, rainy day acknowledging

I am gay, drying the tears on my face,

replacing them with, oh, so dazzling a smile
greeting yours, making it ours, reaching
an understanding that would know better
in future than to give ripples on a pond leave
to run circles in my mind

Copyright R. N. Taber 2010; 2018

[Note: An earlier version of this poem appears in On the Battlefields of Love by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2010 (without photo)