I watched you walk away
in the grey rain;
head bare, erect,
like a challenge.
Your dark hair was water
flooded from a river
bursting its banks at your hairline.
If everyone is a desert,
you are an oasis,
but you’re drowning.
Everyone drinks from you,
but no one will save you.
Like a dream, you move awkwardly;
no coat.
The water swells beneath your feet,
as though trickling out of you
from the sky of your mind
down the waterfall of your thighs.
Red rivulets run down your arms
from past downpours,
when the sky tore
& tried to swallow the ground whole.
Grey covers you.
I wish I could stand over you
& shelter you
& keep just an inch dry
at the back of your neck.
Let me get wet
instead.
Let it pour down
& pummel me to the ground.
I’ll soak it all up like a sorry sponge
& float away
some place your feet
haven\'t taken you yet