OUTDOOR SWIMMING POOL

Cement has got a wet-rock smell

Clear puddles, warmed by sun

Reflect the tower that chimes the hour

As children shriek their fun

And mothers sit, pretend to look

Say ‘That’s nice, dear’ and smile

(They keep their fingers in the book

they’re reading all the while)

And children splash, and children scream

Sometimes they even swim!

(While grown-up children rub on cream

And look askance at them)

True swimmers plow the lanes and glare

When children block the way

Forgetting that they too came there

As children, once, to play

Wishing it Would Rain

The smell of grass is raw and sweet

But asphalt’s burning both my feet

And sunburned shoulders are a pain

I wish to God that it would rain

The Santa Anas whip you dry

As tumbleweeds go bouncing by

This endless sun is such a drain

I wish to God that it would rain

The sky is stretched out like a sheet

All parched and dried-out in this heat

And we who live here are insane

I wish to God that it would rain

I can’t believe that people pay

To come here! Me, I’d run away

If I could just hop on a train

I’d find a place where it would rain.