Winter Rain - Derek J. Brown - Glasgow West End

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Winter Rain – Derek J. Brown

Winter Rain

Tonight, in the city, a winter rain
falls heavily, with an unknown purpose
It takes more than rain to cleanse soul
and more than soul to change a world
pleading to be altered. Everything is
conscience denied its head and tail,
Edward Hopper in his grave,
not turning, not stirring,
tuned to a silence that’s heavenly
At times an image will paint itself,

tonight’s colour neon,
even the darkest shadow
wields a luminosity
Charcoal sycophants in their rage
can rage forever, I,
beyond my own rage, could not care less
I no longer seek epiphany
or salvation in a woman
with a tarot card countenance. Tonight, I am
a bumbling scientist
looking to measure what can’t be measured,

mesmerised by the fact some things are alive,
with what I do not know exactly, I just look at them
and know I am dying slowly, but that’s no curse,
there is freedom in seeing your own mortality
The barmaid’s face shows a porcelain sentiment,
her pulchritudinous body drips abstract information
I sense her sense a suffering
while everyone else pretends
to celebrate what can’t be celebrated
I finish my drink, cast my grief,
far past fireworks until it reaches the moon,
disintegrates across its lifeless surface
In sacred ignorance the primal dance
to the meticulous fear of being alive,
to pathogenic clocks ticking furious,
to peculiar alms for the living dead,
to souls at home on bluest borders
I light a cigarette, walk out into winter rain,
still falling with its cryptic purpose,
still falling as if it’s never
going to stop