[40] Sonnet for the Child of Rain Remembered, Paul Ilechko

It feels like spring all throughout the year     she said
refilling her glass     I’m waiting for something more
extreme     but nobody was listening     which is what
happens when you are a group of three – someone is always
being ignored     and even though there was a beach
outside the window     and views of the ocean     she
sat there motionless     drinking her wine     remembering
when her child was born and how she would bathe
it so carefully     as if it might break     not even assigning
it a gender in her mind     as if it were a toy     not a real
person     and once the child was asleep in its crib     she
would stand there in her nightclothes     watching it sleep
trying to remember the nights when she would walk alone
in the rain     measuring out her breath in tiny amounts.