How Rain Appears

                        losing a son
in the prime of his life is like losing a mind
not in a dark time not a period of great duress not gradually
just all at once the way sky goes from not rain to rain
to rain to rain to rain               to rain
the way the mind thinks everything’s all right
this morning or that god is here and then know of course
god doesn’t exist never did and those
who think so have never been never mind this is what
it’s like to lose a mind I mean what it’s like
to lose a son and what are we without our minds
without our sons without our sons my god

Nicholas Reiner is an American poet of Mexican heritage. His work appears in Spillway, Aquifer, Fourteen Hills, and Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review. He holds degrees from Stanford University and the University of California, Irvine, where he completed an MFA. He lives in Los Angeles, CA with his wife and daughter.