Today’s Meditation: The Sadness of the Subtropics

Rain won’t let go this afternoon.
Palm fronds wear the water like a glove.

They do not wave: there is nothing to wave at.
They shudder, they sag and spill—

and then a ghostly bark announces,
to any female who can hear it,

not that the worst has washed over us
but that a tree frog has had enough

to drink at last, down through his skin,
and waits for love to come to him.

Debora Greger's most recent collection of poems is Western Art (2004). She teaches at the University of Florida at Gainesville.

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