The Rain and the Pain

A slow rain fell.

The cool liquid’s
Dampening brace
Worked into me
As do memories of you.

Those memories
Hurt.

A friend asked
That weary question:
Isn’t it better to have loved and lost
Than never to have
Loved at all?

I lied.
I told him it was.

But damn, Girl
The pain is still so raw
It stuns me.

Even the simplest memory
Sends tears
Down my cheeks.

I drifted into the rain
The way a discarded sales bill
Somersaults the curb.

Lifting my face
I let the tears roll.
Nobody watching cared.
I was just an old fool
Without sense to come out of the rain.

But time, place and person are irrelevant.
Pain leaks into the heart’s crevices
Seeking an exposed nerve
Like rain works between brick and mortar
Breaking the two apart.

It’s unavoidable.
Let the rain and the pain come.
Let the memories roll.
They are my only connection to you.