Poem of the Week - "Raindrop" by John O'Donnell
Raindrop
This you know: the muffled drumbeat
singling out your window, diamond
on the glass; or, from a sullen cloud
a pearl on your lapel dissolving, a dark wound.
Now look again: this cradling of light
suspended from the edge of leaf is like
the swaddled infant dangling from the beak
of the stork that brought new babies when we
were young and could not understand.
One last time, while there's still time to see
me and you, the garden where we stand,
our world shrunk to this gleam
the slightest shudder would let fall.
Into a cupped hand which may not be there at all.
'Raindrop' and many other equally-wonderful poems can be found in John O'Donnell's collection On Water (Dedalus Press), available from Inpress Books.