First Rain

That first rain 

that gently takes 

all that heat 

and dust away.

The cloudy gray 

gift of Fall that 

cools us into winter, 

into closer quarters 

and candlelight and 

candle heat, and times 

of new happiness 

when we can’t remember 

what it was like to be 

so hot and dry and spent, 

so long before 

the happiness 

of that first, 

gentle rain.