The Rain Poured Down

By Dan Gerber b. 1940 Dan Gerber

My mother weeping

in the dark hallway, in the arms of a man,

not my father,

as I sat at the top of the stairs unnoticed—

my mother weeping and pleading for what I didn't know

then and can still only imagine—

for things to be somehow other than they were,

not knowing what I would change,

for, or to, or why,

only that my mother was weeping

in the arms of a man not me,

and the rain brought down the winter sky

and hid me in the walls that looked on,

indifferent to my mother's weeping,

or mine,

in the rain that brought down the dark afternoon.

Dan Gerber's most recent book is Trying to Catch the Horses (Michigan State University Press, 1999). "The Rain Poured Down" copyright © 2005 by Dan Gerber and reprinted by permission of the author.

Source: (Copper Canyon Press, 2005)

Biography

Poet and author Dan Gerber was born and raised in western Michigan. He earned his BA from Michigan State University and went on to have a varied career, including stints as a professional racecar driver, high school teacher, journalist, and corporate executive with his family’s company, Gerber Products. With Jim Harrison, Gerber co-edited the literary journal Sumac and has been writer in residence at institutions including . . .

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