Terry Tierney
Smelling the Rain
Water flowed through bark canyons,
elm and planks of weathered pine,
our fort in the farmyard.
That day my foot slipped,
falling down on muddy shards
of slate and cow bones,
my knee scraped and bleeding,
arm twisted like a thin stalk
straining to lift a heavy bloom
of dandelion sun.
You were there,
wrist slung in tee shirt,
fingernails caked with mud,
wrapping my wounds in grass,
your green shoots growing up
through holes in my shoes.
Now my blue jeans drag,
worn cuffs soaked in puddles,
but you are still there
in your forever spring,
waiting so we can climb again
one more time on bending limb.
Terry Tierney’s first collection of poetry will be published by Unsolicited Press in May 2020. His stories and poems have recently appeared in Long Shot Island, Valparaiso Poetry Review, Front Porch Review, Jersey Devil Press, The Lake and other publications. His website is http://terrytierney.com.
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