How Not To Feel the Rain

Wear 100 dollar shoes.
Get a nose bleed and taste the blood with
          your tongue.
If your head is bleeding, it
          will be hot in the cold, wet
          hair.
If you are pregnant, your baby will
          not feel the pain.
If you cry, that keeps all of you warm.
          Your baby will be small for
          his age and his mouth will be soft.
Wear 200 dollar shoes.
Stare at the speckled road becoming
          more speckled.
Go to the park and put down a tarp
          and wrap up in it. The rain sounds
          like stars hitting you.
Keep your head down this makes you
          shy or
          demure or
          exotic.
Wear 300 dollar shoes and a coat from
          Salvation Army. You will be an
          army and all your arms and legs
          the many snakes of war that
          hiss and spit upon your mind.
Wear 400 dollar shoes and no hat and look up
          at the stars ships tears blood hair
          minds babies bullets tar bodies water
          that come down all over your
          burning burning skin. Face.
Wear 100 dollar shoes and be sure to
          greet every homeless person you
          meet.

Copyright Louise Robertson