Rainy Day—Allan Lake

Allan Lake, originally from Saskatchewan, has lived in Vancouver, Cape Breton, Ibiza, Tasmania, W. Australia & Melbourne. Lake won Lost Tower Publications (UK) Comp 2017, Melbourne Spoken Word Poetry Fest 2018 and publication in New Philosopher 2020. Latest poetry chapbook (Ginninderra Press 2020) ‘My Photos of Sicily’. He was a guest poet at Shoolini Literary Fest in 2022.

Rainy Day

Tears well, spill, fall

to earth if they don’t lose heart 

before crossing my cold cheeks. 

Clearly, slaves to gravity. Get used to salty, 

like you got used to her absence. Didn’t. 

Probably won’t. It burns.

When so much of us is water

overflow releases pressure,   

although timing’s unpredictable.

Just ask fields of grain that pray 

for rain to start or stop. I miss her 

but Nature seems unmoved. 

Less is different, certainly not more 

but this rain, these chilly, rainy days ...

I amble over mossy deadfall as

curious currawongs take confession.

Small floods release what’s usually dammed 

and I may have wept audibly among trees, 

believing waterfall or wind was cover. 

Wouldn’t want to worry anybody who 

happened to wander into this wilderness, 

especially if it’s her.