Back to Issue Seven.

Rain’s House

BY DENVER BUTSON

this is rain’s kitchen
those are rain’s leftovers
that’s rain’s dish rack
there’s rain’s favorite coffee mug

the book rain was reading last night
is face down on rain’s side table
next to rain’s couch
rain would be embarrassed to know you have seen that

I never treat my books like that
rain would blush
but I was summoned just after dinner
to fall in some town somewhere

so I went off in a hurry

this is rain’s coat closet
go ahead     look
everybody wants to

you see–there are rain boots
a rain coat (rain’s raincoat)
and an umbrella
just as is in everyone else’s closet

and there’s rain’s telephone
she still has a landline
I’m old-fashioned I guess
rain says

and there’s rain’s bed
rain’s night table
rain gets lonely sometimes
so the bed is always made
and rain is always ready
for anyone who might want to visit

and there’s rain’s bedroom window
looking out onto rain’s driveway
and down onto rain’s little street

oh and look here comes rain
you thought the air had changed
thought you noticed the trees
preparing for her

like a court might prepare for a princess
if a princess were rain

don’t be alarmed
you don’t have to hide
rain would love the company
after a night like she has had

and she already knows you’re here anyway
she started fixing her hair
as soon as she saw the curtain move

and she checked her lipstick
when she noticed your bicycle

rain’s lipstick is just as she likes it
red as a stoplight in the rain
of course

you watch as rain slows and runs
her fingers along the seat of your bicycle

the bicycle of someone who loves rain
leaning up against the side of rain’s house

and you up there
waiting for her

ready to help her undress
ready to touch her
just as you have always dreamed
that rain likes to be touched

Denver Butson has published three books: triptych (The Commoner Press, 1999), Mechanical Birds (St. Andrews Press, 2001), and Illegible Address (Luquer Street Press, 2004). His work appears in The Yale Review, Ontario Review, Caliban, Quarterly West, and Exquisite Corpse. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

More by Denver Butson: 
“Avalanche Café,” Poetry, Issue Seven.
“The Sky Erotic,” Poetry, Issue Seven.
“Rain’s Idea of Cinema,” Poetry, Issue Seven.