THE GREEN BOTTLE IN THE WINDOW
Ten Poems by Leonardo Dellarocca

"Can you hear me, that when it rains and shines,
it's just a state of mind."
- John Lennon


When the rain comes catch it in colored bottles, place them on the sill.
Outside, a tractor takes all day to turn red. I remember a prayer like
that, a talking silence of hands, the need to fill things with water, to
touch the sleeping body of a parakeet, all ruffled colors, till it
sings. The opening of a body makes room for it on a day that cuts screen
doors with blue shadows of trees. A dog always circles his world before
it pours. Put out pails, clay vessels and fruit jars. Even if there is
no god, the sound of someone crying in a house with a broken skylight is
holy. When the rain comes mix it with a glass of lemonade and listen to
the thunder. Torn from her bed flushed with the idea of devils, a woman
stands at her window filled with old light, brushes tears from her face.
Outside the field burns with a sudden hail, the madness of falling
stars.