Atlas & Alice | Issue 5, Winter 2015/2016
Even in the Rain for Derek The weather girl gestures to the green screen in a pink dress, and we hunker down in our sweat pants watching her predict our future—it’s looking bleak. We take the shirts off of the line so they won’t dance. She’s right: the clouds are turning from mashed potatoes to dirty snow. The sky sings, but it isn’t a love song. And even in the rain I look at your body and know it as part of mine. Maybe I know you best through the filter of a down pour. When it starts, it doesn’t let up until everything bears water. The rain barrel spits out more than it takes in. Trash bobs in the street’s tides. Every step becomes a waterfall. Every waterfall bigger than the last. We start to get the feeling we are very small— it doesn’t let up. 45