Downpour

Rain shoots through the spout of every cloud

in the hemisphere, and the gutters of

our house shudder with the fury of this

mutant Sunday. Film noir thunder spills

through headphones I wear to absorb

those two screams on Won’t Get Fooled Again

to stifle this ascending fear of a grim afternoon

too much like

that ungainly potluck reception

following the funeral that confirmed

I was an orphan. All at once, a freak

summer storm brayed over the patio

my father had poured, drenching pies,

and pounds of skin-on potato salads

based on my mother’s Wichita recipes,

served like the elements in her honor.

Now Daltrey sings Who Are You,

and I have no idea.

Gary Thomas grew up on a peach farm outside Empire, California. Prior to retirement, he taught eighth grade language arts for thirty-one years and junior college English for seven. He has presented poetry workshops for literary organizations, festivals, and conferences. His poems have been published or accepted for publication in The Comstock Review, MockingHeart Review, Monterey Poetry Review, River Heron Review, Barzakh, and Blue Heron Review, among others, and in the anthology More Than Soil, More Than Sky: The Modesto Poets. He is a founding member of the Modesto-Stanislaus Poetry Center, a member of the Curriculum Study Commission and of the Stanislaus County writing group known as The Licensed Fools. A full-length collection, All the Connecting Lights, was released in August 2022 from Finishing Line Press.