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have you ever
noticed
the rain cloud overhead –
the one so pregnant it hangs so
dark, so low?

have you ever
wondered
how long it took to gather
each and every infinitesimal water
particle that it now bears within
its dark fleecy cocoon,
that weighs it down and slows
its passage across the portentous
indigo horizon?

nine years.

it has taken me
nine years
to eventually build up this reservoir,
every globule, every droplet.

a nine-year absence
where i have wondered
if the drought would ever break
and relief come to the parched
and choked alike.

and now
i am ready to shrug
off my heavy accumulation, ready
for a respite from the over-
flowing burden.

but now
it’s time – time for my release.

and then
i find myself troubled -
mocked -
by the debilitating emptiness
of my pyrrhic relief.