by Annie Stenzel

we have almost forgotten how to know you now that you arrive at less predictable intervals and also we never know how much you will deliver and often it is ridiculously little and sometimes far too much for the ground to handle so the angle of repose is challenged beyond its mathematical formula as it was during the first of the atmospheric rivers several years ago and up the street a whole slope beneath the perched house yielded to its burden of water and surged into the street with an extraordinary weight and a noise as though Jove had hurled great hammers at the ground which is not the sound I am thinking of right now because I think the trickling of the droplets is unignorable to those who are paying attention and the heft of a drop cannot easily be measured but how songful the sound when we have heard for so long only the silence of no precipitation and yet a raindrop striking a shapely oval leaf on the hedge sounds one way and its comrade striking the clay pot on the patio makes another sound but a droplet tapping the plastic tub in which the garden tools await their task is a slightly different perhaps more insistent sound until the tempo slows and what we notice is oh no please don’t be done already dear droplets we have been counting on you for parched months to save us all with our drought-fearful souls eying the sky avidly and doing something a bit like praying only of course we do not know to whom

Annie Stenzel (she/her) is a lesbian poet who was born in Illinois, but did not stay put. Her second full-length collection, Don’t misplace the moon, was published in 2024 by Kelsay Books. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in print and online journals in the U.S. and the U.K., including Book of Matches, Does it have pockets, Gavialidae, Kestrel, Night Heron Barks, One Art, Rust + Moth, Saranac Review, SoFloPoJo, SWWIM, The Lake, Thimble, and UCity Review. A poetry editor for the online journals Right Hand Pointing and West Trestle Review, she lives on unceded Ohlone land within walking distance of the San Francisco Bay. Find her at anniestenzel.com, on Facebook as Annie Stenzel and on Instagram @anniebenannie.