It Will Rain Like Rods on the Hillside in Sweden

Winter, 2019–2020 / No. 44

It will rain married men in Spain,

and intermittent toads’ beards Saturday

morning in Portugal. An intense

Pacific frontal system of bamboo

grass and sand will fall over Tokyo.

There’s a chance of young cobblers

developing over Berlin and running

riot across the country all the way

to Athens, where they will fall

Sunday afternoon alongside chair legs.

In Nantes, it’s currently raining

nails, in Grenoble its grenouilles,

ropes in Reims, and Niort is

getting nailed. Cows are pissing

lightly over Paris. In the north

of Taipei, plums will plummet Monday morning. There’s a strong chance of fire

and sulfur over Reykjavík, which

will reek of burnt umbrellas for weeks.

In Bangkok, it will rain

children’s eyes and ears shut for a month,

and then they will open and be quizzed

like little gods on all the winds in the sky.

Kevin Spenst is the author of Ignite, Jabbering with Bing Bong, and more than a dozen chapbooks, most recently Upend. His next book of poetry, Hearts Amok: A Memoir in Verse, will be published in 2020. Last updated winter, 2019–2020.