THirty-SIXTh
Contest
First Place

I watch you
& the rain comes
down like wedding rice

& it doesn’t stop
for days. Little city
in-between us floods as

we wait to outgrow
our terra-cotta pots.
Soon, the trees will bloom.

The cherry blossom.
The wind scatters her & gives
us ideas on which to set our

faith. If the invisible
can move the flower, surely
she will come for us. Surely,

there is a future where
it pours & we bloom & that
can be enough. I watch you

& the rain comes
like she knows we need
to be rinsed clean; like she

knows all our lives
we have been waiting
to burst into vibrant color.