DROPS AND DROPS OF RAIN

A summer storm is yelling and telling me
to “Quick! Look out your window.”
I look out through the black glass of night.
More! I open up my window to hear
the surround sound of falling rain
on our green, green garden below.
1,000,000,000 plus drops of rain
are pelting and pounding the plants
and not one of them is complaining.
Better: they are sticking their tongues out
to taste each drop, each gift of sky water,
like kids on a summer night licking ice cream.
Looking out my window, it's as if
I’m in a choir loft,  looking down
into the church of night in prayer.
The sky is giving; the earth is receiving.
Once more God is surprising us,
sprinkling us, playing with us,
baptizing us with 1,000,000 plus
drops and drops and drops of rain.
Surprise! I go downstairs and walk outside,
so I can get rebaptized in this church of rain.
Better: so I can stick my tongue out to taste
each drop of rain - to give thanks, eucharist,
to be in communion with our Giving God.



© Andy Costello, Reflections, 2011

The oil painting on top is entitled, "Rhythm of the Rain," by Francine Henderson.