Living in the Moment

Living in the Moment

I love rain, heavy rain, drenching rain.

Rain so thick that it limits visibility,
becomes a cloud across the ground,
occasionally lit up as the lightning flashes.

The sound, rhythmic,
increasing and decreasing
as the rain sheets
with a crack of thunder
thrown in here and there.

Walking in it,
feeling its modulation,
dripping with it.

Watching the rivulets
run down the windowpane
and the trees dance in the wind.

The pool’s surface no longer glassy
but choppy, disturbed.

Now a siren, signaling what?

But the rain continues unheeding,
until it peters out
to a mere whisper of its glorious self . . .

1998

Milestones

Eighth Grade Graduation. or as they call it here, Eighth Grade Continuation.

Why? You've got me. I can surmise that it's because the majority of the 8th graders are continuing on to 9th grade in the same school district but, as my dad pointed out, then why isn't there a continuation ceremony every year? So, they call it Continuation but we call it Graduation.

The difference between 8th grade girls and 8th grade boys is quite striking. As they were arrayed up on the stage, the girls physically hinted at their approaching adulthood while the boys brought to mind the youth they were leaving behind.