painting by Marlene Vine (marlenevine.com), poem by Roy Herndon Smith
the monsoon downpour
drenching me riding my bike
the delicious cool
drowning out the heat
and the lonely torment of
the left-behind house
flying through the streets
to my best friend’s home flooded
with his five sisters
we took refuge in
his room where I floated in
the easy comfort
of his presence as
voices lapped and pattered and
I fell in love for
the very first time
with the quiet sister with
hair falling like rain
dust 