<div dir="ltr"><span id="gmail-docs-internal-guid-4170bdae-7fff-4b9c-6436-c3066e019bd3"><br><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Desert Rain</span></p>by Joan Myles</span><div><span><br><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">three people head into the desert</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">the old man’s pockets bulge with souvenirs</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">the young man’s pilsner is never empty </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">the woman lives two thousand miles away</span></p><br><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">three people in  cellophane overcoats</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">the old man’s love strangles his heart</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">the young man’s love juggles tulips and thistles</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">the woman’s love peers through a telescope inward</span></p><br><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">three people treading solitude</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">the old man is filled with remembering</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">the young man is filled with forgetting</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">the woman is filled with being</span></p><br><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">three people head into griefs desert</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">side by side without seeing</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">without hearing without knowing the others are there</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">because the rain is too dense</span></p></span><br class="gmail-Apple-interchange-newline"></div></div>