Illustration Friday - Soaked

Fury of Rain

Thunder beings dance the flooding streets

of this city, stripped naked to their electric skeletons.

I stand inside their wild and sacred ritual

on these streets of greasy rainbows

and see my own furious longing

erupt from the broken mask of change

to stone, to bear, to lightening.

Gut memory shakes the earth like a rattle,

knocking my teeth with heroic thunder.

I could have lied

and not seen my own death

dancing in the streets, the main shady

character forcing me to live.

What can I do but celebrate after

guarding the wreck for thirty-five years, in

this ceremony larger than a damp, suspicious city?

We are all in the belly of a laughing god

swimming the heavens, in this whirling circle.

What we haven't imagined will one day

spit us out

magnificent and simple
                                   by Joy Harjo