Diana Der Hovanessian: Rain

Rain undoes the stone
unfastens grass.
Nothing is permanently
attached to bone.
Neither epoxy
not promises last.

But I keep those inflections
you telephoned to wear
with your frown on rainy days.
There is another you
I have invented from your name
and cemented to my bones forever.

let rain say nothing stays.

Diana Der Hovanessian

From How to Choose Your Past, Ararat Press, 1978. This poem has also appeared in The Nation.