AN INDIVIDUAL STANDS IN A THUNDERSTORM IN ORDER TO COLLECT RAINWATER IN A DRINKING GLASS, WHICH HE SUBSEQUENTLY CONSUMES.

lying in bed with the thoughts of past summer thunderstorms
summoned by the sounds of this one...
my father sitting with my sister and I on the patio porch swing
counting for the thunder after the lightning strikes
our mother would whisk us safely inside... perfectly dry
but our father remained
and while waiting for the rain the wind would blow in...
I'd fall asleep before it ever arrived
in both senses and tenses

I feel for this and others I've been truly ungrateful all my life
and on some level continue to be
I believe the term "newfound appreciation" could be aptly applied
should I ever be able to appreciate anything ever at all
so profound is my devout skepticism that I wonder how one might ever convey the importance of anything sacred or treasured
without coming off as overly dramatic or overly romantic or overtly cliche
so I'll just relent to it

it is to the youths,
your youth,
and youth itself
you give everything you have
the full surrender understood once it has passed you by and then confronted with once more
it is then that the terms and conditions are agreed upon
it's the elders whom you'll never repay
and you needn't worry about it because they'll never ask you to...
they don't want for it
one day, you simply take their place

this is a one act play that has something to do with the nature of parent/child relations 34 days after you were born, for which there is nothing I can write that Shel Silverstein hasn't already written better
...you know, The Giving Tree and all that shit

[VIDEO - 7:36]

2009