When It Rains

The rain pounded everything. It broke up the topsoil and swept it away, exposing tree roots clutching at oozing mud. It stripped hillsides down to the limestone. The rain beat the clothing off of people and bruised their skin. It cracked the bones of cats, possums, skunks, and squirrels. It broke the drought and replaced it with thick, stinking floodwater that didn’t recede for years.