Madison Heights High School Pirates

Madison Heights High School Class of 1966

In Remembrance

AFTER THE RAIN

by Stephen Cronk

Remember boys, more guts than

brains, climbing weird ledges to

lean into the wet wind.

Remember men, eyes clouded
by metal, selling their senses to the chatter
of machines.

See the rounded shoulders casting shadows
in the suburbs, gray on green at 4 PM,
sleepwalking through the evening, rearranging the towels,
checking for leaks--something
to hold on to.

What is time? This numbing

rain.

Then clouds roll away and the eye rides the tall grass,

ragged. One wonders at the growth, the jungle-

reclamation of clearings of men, constantly in need of

attention...

as a boy brings a machine of his father

and attacks green with explosions.

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