Chances of Precipitation

They never knew – or knew for the first time,
The [word missing] of the rain
          from The Last & Lost Poems by Delmore Schwartz

The woman in the doorframe
with one hand in the top corner,
hip cocked into the groove of the strike plate,
is neither the door opened nor
the door closed, neither barred nor unlocked.

Just as the crack of too bright sunlight
through the blinds is not your soul and
the heat rising off you in the humid morning
is not your spirit ascending.

This is how the highway feels:
that mirage of wetness an illusion
without symbol. When it does come,

the word missing in the rain
brings its own relief.

Originally published in Natural Bridge, Number 19 — Spring 2008