I saw a double rainbow out the front door today, over against the Oakland hills. Admittedly the larger rainbow was faint, but I swear it was there. It’s one thing to see a double rainbow on Maui, quite another here in Oakland, where we have been longing for, praying for rain.

And the rain has come, finally. I could feel the ground sigh and open, almost like accepting the caresses of a lover.

The storm this morning was like a lovemaking
wind off the bay twisting the maple leaves
ruffling the grasses and the surface of the water
then a burst of hard rain against the windows and on the roof, quite loud

then a softening, a lull
then it all began again.

In the lull hundreds, really! hundreds of birds, gulls, cormorants, some black ducks, and pelicans flew close to the water, all heading east, flying as if they were running from something. They were riding the wind from the west.

Then there were no birds on the water. Gone.

Next time I looked, the pelicans were returning west in a feeding frenzy
some fish school circling right close to the edge and then moving out over the channel
the pelicans dive bombing, splashing, rising, diving again
the water seemed to boil

and then more rain, so hard I could no longer see out the window
then ten minutes later, calm.

and then half an hour later, the double rainbow.
It was all a kind of love making.

Jeanne Rana

November 29, 2018