"Jump!" my little brother yells.
"Jump!"
I smile at him and tap the rain water
with my boot.
"No, jump!" he yells again,
splashing through the rain.
I laugh at his excitement.
"Perhaps another time," I say, and we promptly
circle around the puddle
and go on our way.

Every glance in the mirror
Seeing the spitting image of my dad
And mad because
I could never be that

That man
Worth ten times what I could ever be
And all this I see
Every time my eyes wander

Over a reflective surface
The pain he keeps bottled up inside
No **** it hurts
He looks into a puddle, that
Shows him his own sorrow

And it endless
And like a newborn baby
Helpless, defenceless
And as always, friendless

They say appreciate what you got,
I got nothing
I sometimes wish I could turn it
Into something

But who is really there for me,
When I need them most
And I bet you all probably
Raise your hands in support

But I know next to none of you
And you can call this a pity party, if you will
But it's the only sorta party I get invited to
So pardon me while I pop this pill

The one that takes me to Wonderland
Right before I die
The one that makes me fade away
At the end of the night

The night sky's
One great eye
Followed every step
I placed
Along paths
Rain displaced
Along streets
We traced
Reflected on puddles
With one jump came crashing
You looked up expecting
An explosion
In the sky
Fragments of the eye
Mother's broken plate
Father's hand across
Your face
You waited with a sigh
And a disappointing taste
Filled your mouth
What a waste
You thought is life
Without strife
And
Without love
As the moon shone
Staring down from above
And we continued on our way
Tempted to live
Another day

a songbird sipping
from a newly formed puddle
ripples travel on

I love the way rain looks when it melts the pavement into glass.
All the trees and lights cast back the tangled road.
Looking out the window during a storm
and bringing your eyes from the street
to the window,
all the water droplets move along to their own rhythm like land *****, ending up a puddle in a stage of full maturity.

Rain
t r i c k l e s
             d
o
    w
n
the gutters into the
small
p u d d l e
collecting
        below,
drip,
drip,
drip,
plop,
plop,
plop,

water       into the
falls        puddle,
splashing onto your
stationary
        sneakers.
can’t make yourself
M O V E
[out] of the r   i
      a  n.
because you can’t tell
the
difFerence b e t w e e n
the t
e
    a
r
    s
from the clouds
and the t
         e
    a
r
                    s
from your eyes.

You quickly approach
A puddle of mud
Small enough to step over
But you thought it'd be fun
To splish and splash
And make a mess
But it's dirtied your face
And ruined your dress

You stomp out of the puddle
It has ruined your day
You look back in anger
And head on your way

But what is to blame here,
The action or trouble?
The mud or the splashes?
The person or puddle?

Don't walk into mud
Then complain of the mess
If you want to stay clean
Just watch where you step

Not all, but many outcomes
Are up to us
So be careful that your actions
Will lead to what you want

antlers
fourteen points
cernunnos stirs
while the daffodils
reach their thirties
orderly routines
-
stones start skipping
replete potholes, puddle-filled
paving the way
capsizing axles
-
sipping steam from fog clouds low-hanging
not really minding that my shirt is wet from the concrete