by Tierney Wells

As I stand among the showers,

Warm and wet, 

Soft tears that seep into my coat, a flimsy rubber of unmistakable yellow with boots to add.

I stand young and smiling, a goodbye said and gone,  

Gay and sad with the warm tears of the clouds, 

The sky itself mourning the loss alongside me. 

He won’t be gone for ever, the showers whisper,

caressing my cheeks as I stare ahead,

those big footsteps nearly faded on the cracked, obsidian road. 

I stand there for eons, 

days seeming to flash forward in blinks of spring,

Summer,

Autumn,

Winter.

But not once did he return.

With time my heart hardens against happiness, reserving my smile and joy and love only for him.

The soft tears soon turn to ones of ice-cold pain, stabbing into my coat again and again.

But not once did I break. 

“He will be back.” I tell the ice-cold daggers, my eyes staring into the gray,

seeing his well-remembered silhouette. 

I stand in the rain until he returns, that once powerful figure now gone, 

a decorated figure for others and yet a stranger to me. 

Those big, strong arms that once held me with warmth now folded and cold, the memory of an open smile and laugh now replaced with a flat line. 

Still, I wait, 

the rain stabbing into my coat as I bide my time,

the coat now a shawl,

feet now bare and worn.

I stare into the gray again,

hoping for him to appear again.

Waiting among the showers for him to come home with me. 

But in the gray, someone else came, 

a figure of dark and silence,

his white palm cold and well-worn,

a quiet guide through the showers. 

I don’t fear the caretaker, for fear had left a long time ago with him on a rainy night.

I’m led to a place of memory, green, warm, and sunny,

the rain is warm again, like it was once upon a time, and the sun smiles through snow-white clouds.

I stand in the rain with a smile as I wait again, my heart filled with anticipation and hope.

Only this time, he comes. And my smile rivals the light around us.

And he opens those big arms, enclosing me in love and laughter. 

And I no longer wait as we dance in the rain,

father and daughter,

among the warm showers.