The pains so produced
are not, of course, excruciating—
more abstract,

purple petunias, amaranths, flattened
daisies, mattresses with phosphorescent
bodies that shimmer in the dark—

When the movie theatre closed
we decided to stay.
It was depressing, at first,

In Bible Class I stared at a colored print
Of Michelangelo's The Last Judgment.
I looked at the swirling bodies drawn up

Four easy hours from San Francisco, yes
The sitting mallards tip like steel-plate ducks;
Between them, clay-pipe fishes leap and pop

Although the field lay cut in swaths.
Grass at the edge survived the crop:
Stiff stems with lateral blades of leaf.

I have a gift for you.
Please open it now
For inside you will find the words

It’s raining for some reason over West St. Clair St. 
That merges in a cloud bank with Riddle Rd.; 
Evening Star Lane lent me to kiss Iris one fine night 

there were faults, ducts formed by the earth tearing
our cities apart. Out of this madness, a cry mounted

as if by name, cursed what sky lay just above Zo'ar,

Salt pillars are no obstacle and we
look forward on remorse. The present rain
of fire is man-made, and from a deader sea