Listening to the Rain

Wind through water,
waves through sky,
a rushing streaming flowing
surrounds each one,
microscopic tsunamis
and tiny howling hurricanes
shaped by the sheer speed
of miniature seas streaking through space.

A drop connects - tap! - with a broad leaf
slipping off the side to - slap! - past a smaller one
joining a secondary chorus of dispersed plinks and plops
reaching the earth,

Where trickles crickle and seepings creep,
joining forces to track cracks in the ground.
Separating again sub-surface,
each sop soaks a clod,
to be sipped silently by a patient root,
where only an earthworm turns his head to notice.

Elsewhere, thousands of tiny, bare feet
slap the pavement as they run,
an invisible child bangs a metal pot,
sitting in the bend of the gutter pipe,
drowning out the rest.