god made it rain so i'd run to the bus stop god knew otherwise i'd be late i grab my umbrella torn from a pawn shop drop all my keys down a grate but i have to let go and keep running i choke on my cough drop neighbor's dog's launching itself at the gate barking tossing itself like a ship onto rocks a creature that will not resign to its fate i said give me five to my neighbor a lefty he thought i meant money and handed me some i gave it back to my four-fingered lefty he slaps me five by adding the thumb from his right hand he says diane why don't you quit that job that you've got if you always run late, you must hate it you know, if i were a woman i'd get me knocked up so i could sit home and look out at the snow we watched the rain make old snow into glass snow into glass like the sun does to sand he says do you want to and i say i guess he shivers under my five-fingered hand my spent neighbor leaves his sleight-of-hand alley and i am alone until something gets thrown at me blood on my cheek and the laughter of children the sting of a snowball embedded with stone i see neighborhood mothers wig out from their windows watching their archangels arch in the snow in sub-zero tempertures rigid and rosey kids stagger by with the frostbitten glow god made it rain so i'd run to the bus stop god knew otherwise i'd stay home calling in sick is no final solution hiding in bed and unplugging the phone sometimes you must work until you give out sometimes you must work until all work is done look at the way the rain clears a path for the sky to conceive an immaculate sun