Even the Rain by Agha Shahid Ali

Even the Rain

by Agha Shahid Ali

from his book Call Me Ishmael Tonight (Norton, 2003)

What will suffice for a true-love knot? Even the rain?

But he has bought grief’s lottery, bought even the rain.

“Our glosses / wanting in this world”—“Can you remember?”Anyone!—“when we thought / the poets taught” even the rain?

After we died—That was it!—God left us in the dark.And as we forgot the dark, we forgot even the rain.

Drought was over. Where was I? Drinks were on the house.For mixe...