“He stayed that way for a long time and when he aroused himself and again looked out of the car window the town of Winesburg had disappeared and his life there had become but a background on which to paint the dreams of his manhood.”
– Sherwood Anderson, ‘Winesburg, Ohio’

I think whenever you leave a place
you should do so on a rainy day
never a sunny one as those
color perceptions inaccurately

Rainy days give you a better sense
of reality; rain is always going to fall
you are always going to get wet
you just need to be prepared for rain

As a young child, on long car trips
with my parents I would kneel on the
backset, elbows perched on rear dash
as I watched the road, our trip, recede

My mother would admonish me, only
half-joking, to turn around, see where
I was going, not where I had been
it was sound, yet impractical advice

For where I was had been adventurous
which piqued my curiosity for whatever
lay ahead, my expectations most always
lived up to, as I saw everything as new

Rainy days, in particular, gave me a sense of
the rhythm of life; sunny days, cloudy days
times of a few sprinkles of annoyance
days when the downpours washed away…

Traveling in the car also had the advantage
of metrical accompaniment of the wipers
on our boat-sized Plymouth Fury, then on
rainy days at home, I longed for same

I think whenever you leave a place
you should do so on a rainy day
leave the sunshine to its promises
cleanse all with rain on the road