February People, February Rain

Rained all day and night
and all day and night, a horse stood
across the way in the field.
The man who owns horse owns barn
but can't be bothered with door, I am melting
watching horse make the choices
horse can make, turn left, right, eat now,
stop eating now.

Sometimes in movies they edit color
out of tulips & faces edit the mood
oppressive

in this wool sock light
we should avoid dialogue directors
cigarettes one of us might be dying
or a child to play it safe
let's only say small things
today nice eyelashes you have
the best vowels until the sun
or an actor playing the blue
parasol sky clears his throat
in front of us action.

The good news is paper covers rock,
rain melts snow, red fuzz on the maple
soon to open & green & we'll notice
one morning three or seven leaves
see-through almost fog on a branch.

Day and night of rain, week and life
of rain we just need to make it
rock dulls scissors rain dulls hope
a few more inches put our heads down
turn left, right, eat, eat,
there are drugs for people like us
called grow up called rain rain
go away come again some other
than waiting to die we could break out
paper & paints & remember when fingers
were brushes listen this roof
is under attack this house is big enough
for tag instead of Zoloft
you're it.

*Bob Hicok's poetry has appeared in such magazines as The New Yorker, Ploughshares, and Poetry. He is the author of Animal Soul, which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry, He is also the author of The Legend of Light , which won the 1995 Felix Pollak Prize in Poetry and was an ALA Booklist Notable Book of the Year, and Plus Shipping which is very likable on its own merits.