The kindest rain I ever met saved my favorite petunias when I forgot they needed watering
It swallowed up the busyness and gave me the perfect excuse
for reading and earl grey in my bed all day
It cooled the hot summer pavement just in time for dancing and kissing
getting us completely soaked, and watching me love every second of it
And a month later, that rain disguised my salt stained face from the streetlights
walking home after my first love told me his feelings had changed

The most honest rain I ever saw washed the dirt from my calloused hands
when I could only focus wrist deep in a flower bed
Rain that saw a summer ending too early, children filled with anxiety
and gifted my neighborhood with green and relief
It watched me sit in my room, fever of 100 degrees matched the temperature
It cooled the earth for an entire day, a day of much needed escape from the pile of kleenex lining my bed like prison bars
That rain met me in the middle of my driveway the day when my skin caught flame
and the breath had left my lungs

The rudest rain I ever came in contact with washed the welcome chalk from my neighbor’s sidewalk
the day before her daddy traded his camouflage for an apron and a coach’s hat
It postponed the final game of the season, and she had been practicing since May
Fall came and so did middle school, she spent hours planning her pretty first day outfit
just to have it turned into a splatter painting of mud by the time she walked through the front doors
It watched me show her how to build a snowman,
and then laughed as he was reduced to a melted pile of slush and a carrot nose

The most necessary rain I ever encountered didn’t live to please
It made all the flowers bloom in May and then stayed away,
no matter how many people complained about 90 degree days
It lived to save, putting out the fires blazing through forests and through my heart
drowning ground that hadn’t seen relief in years
It kept traffic at bay the day the ambulance housing my uncle didn’t have time for red lights
and washed the grief covering my skin into the cracks of the sidewalk