Tease

I keep hearing thunder. The weather widget on my desktop says thunderstorms tonight, and I am just waiting. It's been a week of day time temperatures over a hundred, and they're not predicted to go any lower for about another week. The corn fields behind my house and across the street have changed from a tasseled sea of green to crispy brown stalks whose leaves crumble in my hands. There's a film of dust just suspended in the air. It doesn't take long outside to find it gathered in the creases of your elbows and knees.

I want that rain, and I want it now. I need it, and each celestial rumble hits me like an ache. I wonder if this is what phantom limb feels like. I know the rain is meant to be here, and its absence is a void.

There are so many things I ought to be thinking about and taking care of. I have another job interview tomorrow. The womanchild got a speeding ticket today and just doesn't understand why I'm so upset since she's going to pay the ticket. There's laundry and dishes to be done. I have a list of phone calls I need to make, and I've promised myself to get the last of the home paperwork properly filed properly away this week.

I can't concentrate though. I just look out the window and keep hoping that each thunderclap, each rumble will be the one to signal the sky's release of the rain we so badly need.

rain