For Dad

You should know it’s raining now,
how much I needed this rain,
its hands smoothing the thorns
of drought.

You should know I find it easier
to write of climate change than love,
that time’s passage hurts in ways
drought cannot.

You should know I cherish memories
of bike rides, tennis matches, math lessons,
arguments—all that which gives one strength
to survive drought.

You should know I love you by looking
at the rain, how it embraces leaf, branch, and root—
how, embracing you, I swell with tears
that erase drought.