Rain

Rain is the great transporter,
even before it arrives
its perfume slipped under the door
like a letter, an invitation
to rise as earthbound
drops descend like weights
backstage, that raise the scenery
and lift us out of easy chairs
and easy lives, to where
it never rains, is always parched,
a room cut off and boarded up,
where a single drop
placed on those lips
could bring you back.

Keith Althaus is the author of Rival Heavens and Ladder of Hours. His poems have appeared in many magazines and journals, including The New Yorker and Virginia Quarterly Review. He lives in North Truro, Massachusetts.