16 Days of Rainfall
by Rick Parnell

16 days of rainfall,
24 to go

There’s a whiskey on the table
Left by someone I used to know
The mark that’s underneath it
Was left there long before
Hide behind your T-shirts
Your two-day stubble growth
Hope there’s no one with the nerve to ask you
Where your story goes

Many layers of sweet onion
Photos rotting under wraps
You thought that you could keep them
As a record of your past
The sports car that defined you
is rusting in the back
You boarded doors and windows
So the story goes

And the river flows,
While your story grows,
Does somebody know,
Where a river goes


There’s a highway in your future
Not like the free ways of your past
You’re sure that if she finds you
This time you’ll make it last
You hope the things she sells you
Will make up for what you lack
But you know you won’t dare ask her
Where her story goes

And the waters flow,
And the river grows,
Who will control,
Where your story goes…

As you contemplate a darkness
On a sunny Sunday afternoon
You pull the weeds from her garden
Cause you know she’ll be here soon
New curtains on your front door
The new shoes on your feet
Won’t hide the full uncertain of
Where this story goes

And the waters grow,
And so the river flows,
Still nobody shows,
Where your story goes…

16 days of rainfall,
24 to go….