Running in the Rain

I had a week I can't forget,
a load I'll keep forever.
I walked into uncharted waters,
I wish I'd been more clever.

It rained that night, the lamps were out,
the house had seemed so dark.
The light just outside my window jumped;
yet, the night snuffed out it's spark.

He sat there crying
behind the dark back wall.
The night seemed large, the rain so loud...
why did I feel so small?

I could hear his gulping sobs
as I slowly drew near;
but, I flinched and recoiled
before he saw me hear.

I moved into the kitchen,
feeling scared and trapped.
I felt caged and caught, a wingless bird...
Just then, the screen door flapped.

My eyes turned towards the door
and then flickered back to him.
He stood there in the hall...
the darkness made him dim.

I frantically grabbed my coat
and went flying out the door.
I left him standing there
before he could say more.

The pounding rain caught my cries
and carried them away,
but did not hide them well enough
for they haunt me now today.

I ran and screamed across the field
while flinging fists into the sky.
I hit and punched this nameless foe
and asked God to make him die.

I screamed at him until I went hoarse
and blamed him for my pain.
I tripped and fell into the mud,
sitting curled up in the rain.

I let it run across my face
mixing with my tears;
I whispered out my anger
built up from fifteen years.

I stood once more to face the storm
and fight the nameless foe...
yet, as I drifted more from home
I had nowhere else to go.

I stood there staring toward the line
that separated rain from dirt,
and I felt the cold seeping into my bones
and dampening my shirt.

I tried to move further down,
but something told me no.
As I reared my head up to scream,
I saw my nameless foe.

He sat there laughing in the sky
sending rain to hinder me.
He blinded me with pelting drops
that drove me to my knees.

I tore off my coat and hat
and threw them in the dirt.
Laying on my back, I soaked
my jeans, my hair, my shirt.

I waited for the final blow
which God had promised me...
Or, perhaps it was the devil who had heard
and the one that I could see?

My tears had washed away
and joined current with the rain,
and as I lay there waiting,
gone too was all my pain.

Now, I felt wet and cold...
and a little nauseous too.
I became aware of rocks beneath me
cutting as I moved.

I sat up and searched for warmth
and found my coat and hat.
They were too wet to be much comfort,
so I stood from where I sat.

My fear was much too great right then
to be dealt with in hell.
I knew had I said the word
that's where I would have dwelt.

As I headed toward the house
the clouds slackened to a lull.
The lights were lit now in the windows.
Yet still, they seemed too dull.

Instead I started walking
back the way I came,
and as I moved the thunder rolled
and I braced myself for rain.

I walked for hours, they said;
but, I don't remember much.
Except, my eyes feel tender,

still too soft for touch.

I'll try to sleep this hurt away

and awake alive and new.

Yet, sleep does not work wonders

when I want it to.

As I drift to sleep

and await my dream scape show

I'm still taunted by a face...

that is my nameless foe.