LIVESAY, Dorothy


Green Rain

I remember long veils of green rain

Feathered like the shawl of my grandmother –

Green from the half-green of the spring trees

Waving in the valley.

I remember the road

Like the one which leads to my grandmother’s house,

A warm house, with green carpets,

Geraniums, a trilling canary

And shining horse-hair chairs;

And the silence, full of the rain’s falling

Was like my grandmother’s parlour

Alive with herself and her voice, rising and falling –

Rain and wind intermingled.

I remember on that day

I was thinking only of my love

And of my love’s house.

But now I remember the day

As I remember my grandmother.

I remember the rain as the feathery fringe of her shawl.