[jasmine]

Acid Rain

The rain falls heavier here,
because these dark clouds hold it in, bury it deep,
until they sink from the weight.

And only then the sharp rain falls,
cuts, like barbed pieces of gray sky and lead
clouds, or shards broken into the skin, unforgiving.

The fiercest rage is rage withheld.
when the thick, wet heat of day suffocates the lungs,
and the road leaks low steam into the hills,
the first drops impatiently surge
from the still air, begin their assault
on the soft earth below.

Still, these clouds conceal
white-hot electric fury,
pulsating intermittently
inside.

Still, they swell with agitation,
and the realm of the unspoken,
looms dark, looms heavy.

The scent rises and circles on mixed winds,
hot and cool, that drag the bitter air to the fray,
where the acrid breath of heat and scorched earth
heightens awareness, until taste is steel rain
and touch is prickly-cold beads, condensation.

The deep groan of soggy air repeats its distant rumble,
resonating, barely audible, growing then subsiding,
echoing long into obscurity, blurring the distinction
between what was heard and what was imagined.

And then the red storm rises
not before us, but
within.

Jasmine Chiang
September 9, 2007