steady rain in the afternoon

steady rain in the afternoon

there's water, dumped in buckets of buckets
water, steady, out of the whole sky
and dripping off the eaves, loud as one
hundred trains, 3 miles away, steady

so i'm out of the hut, out
into the warm rain, and i wade out
into the shallow, warm ocean
slicing between one thousand hammer drops, chop
chopping the morning's glass surface
into a potfull of boiling bullets
              yes, water falling from the sky
              meeting water laying flat on the earth

              meanwhile
              beneath the almond tree
              the rain cannot see the crooked
              table, dripping quietly
into twenty small puddles set
perfectly around its' edge

and off beneath the tin roof
beneath a racket of big drops
drumming dark smelly men are barking
beneath that tin roof they are slapping
fat white dominoes down, slap, slapping
            rain, slap/ rain, slap
            laugh, drink, rain, laugh/ slap
            slap slapping

strong men, slapping down
everything they own, slap
slapping to keep from hearing
the rain,
beneath the roof, beneath the rain, lifting-up
slow red beers/ slap
and laughing
slap, drip/ slapping
steady