The Penetrating Rain

The day's steady, penetrating
rain has cast its gloom on
the landscape. The sky, like a
vast perforated strainer, pewter
and transparently sodden, has
turned its unrelenting faucet
to the fully discharging setting.

Misery sits drenched and apathetic
within the cool, shuddering dens
and nests of Nature's creatures
unwilling to venture into the
fur-and-feather-damping scene.
Watery forest runways are
mud-brown and rank in swamp gas.

Willow leaves, speared and green,
have formed a spiral island
on the swollen, turgid stream.
The forest soil can absorb no
more, the hills are slick with
tumbled leaves, luminous-wet.

Pine needles, orange-bright,
carpet the forest floor, punctuated
by cones, sticky with sap adhering
to soft paw pads, picking up dried
seed pods, furthering Nature's
faultless distribution system.