When It Rains Outside

The rain outside -
raindrops dance in a sixteenth-beat syncopated frenzy
Reminds me of girls in skirts belly-dancing in drinking sprees
Spree of beer, bellies, and beer-bellies bloated, fleeing for more
angry clashes of water and earth when it rains outside
psychedelic lights spark dreams of suicide with glycerin and cyanide
I can't decide from more beer or sleep.
I turn on the radio instead but then-
bats rushed out as if hiding inside the speakers' crevices.
They fly out the blaring irises, then the windows,
and into the falling debris of gin bottles and cigarette butts
 -and then they die, when it rains outside.

When it rains outside, the estero is flooded with blood and beer.
And I'm inside this house filled with smoke,
alone with broken beer bottles
and a glass filled with vomit and gin.

**

A poem I wrote in 2009. I took the photo.