it’s raining
after so long baked
under the merciless
gaze of summer
the accumulated
filth runs down
the swollen gutters
a sluice in shades
of forgotten dream

i stand in the storm
soaked through
praying the rains
could purify whatever
ancient curse rattles
through my windswept soul

bonedeep sorrows in
a flurry of sodden denials
i am condemned by
inherited scars
doom dripdripdrips down
poisoning the wishing well
tarnishing the coins
as tomorrow contemplates
the dingy drudgery
unphasedunfazedunphrased
in a suicidal malaise