The wind wrestles rain from the leaves
Dropping them audibly, distinctly, on my skin, hair, glasses, toes.
No one can identify the onset of wind.
With no traceable origins, linked to yesterday’s pressure system
Last week’s storms over the coast,
Last year’s tsunamis and droughts,
Today’s breeze the result of weather arising and dissipating since –
Since God separated Heaven from Earth –
Or particulate matter exploded in an ever-increasing force of expansion –
Whichever metaphor you prefer.
Nor can I trace the origins of last night’s standoff,
Cool air sinking downward, summer heat pressing further and further skyward,
Wind jostling back and forth from a canopy of regret to the core of disillusion,
Wrath wrestling pain down, drop by drop, audibly and distinctly, on my skin, hair, glasses, toes.
Passed from heart to bones to skin to heart,
No discernible beginning, no discernible end,
Today’s aching the result of disquiet arising and dissipating since –
Since God separated you from me –
Or the ever-increasing expansion of matter into distinct people began with a tiny bang,
An explosion pushing all living and loving things away from each other –
Whichever metaphor you prefer.
Of planets and matter and all things human, this drift is unstoppable.
A universe of ever-expanding pain.