We follow the rain down, follow it
into the street, through the grate into the sewer murk,
race along side it with our rib-skin splitting, our soles
throbbing, our chest full of wanting, quick
to follow the rain, follow it out, take its roads
and crunch into the garbage, seep into the concrete,
drip sideways and up and touch
crooked roots and pebbles and moss,
bleed away into the layers of earth and rot,
rub our backs against bones, scrunch follicles
into our eyes, get drunk by the masses that hoard and herd
forward into the combusting, carbon pumped mind,
lay next to rain, count the bodies, brace the air,
get swallowed by an insect, gulped by a sunray,
licked by a child’s foot running through a lawn,
we follow, and follow, and follow,
follow the rain down.