Hard Rain

Words start in a trickle

a gentle drizzle

tickling my senses

teasing me to pick up a pen

After a couple of lines

the wind gusts

and the heavens open

A deluge of hard rain

pummels me with words

too numerous to catch

This rain hurts!

In moments I’m drenched

falling so fast, so hard

the words bruise my mind

bounce off my body leaving welts

then puddle at my feet like spilled ink

Phrases drip from my hair

run into my eyes making vision difficult

then streak down my face and neck

I’m soaked to the skin

drops coursing down my arms

to fall from fingertip to pen

onto a page too wet to hold ink

I fight to save the words

being washed away

 “Me! Me!” they yell

demanding to be written

But I’m drowning

I can’t write fast enough

Suddenly it stops

the overcast opens to blue

and the sun peeks through

The words dry on my arms,

ink on the page becomes readable

I begin moving the pieces around

assembling the jigsaw puzzle

of a poem.