Rain

 

The rain               Let the summer rain that rains
Falls                      A flood upon the battered stones
                              Make grow the dry banana trees
and a city             Permit the serpent in the garden
is                           To build a nest on the withered stalk

drowned. But    Allow the bird to presage death
                              And let a universe be sung
                              A door swung open on the rain

in the garden     The serpent may become a tree
grows                   The rainbow burn an only time
                              A portent bird fly free:
                              o rain a flood unhemmed by time

a tree.                  Dry rains the rain on me my days
                              No longer me but what becomes

From Tau by Philip Lamantia and Journey to the End by John Hoffman, edited by Garrett Caples © 2008 by City Lights and Nancy Peters for the Estate of Philip Lamantia. Reprinted with the permission of City Lights Books.