Gladys May Casey Hayford, "Rainy Season Love Song" (1927)
By Gladys May Casey Hayford
Out of the tense awed darkness, my Frangepani
comes;
Whilst the blades of Heaven flash round her, and
the roll of thunder drums,
My young heart leaps and dances, with exquisite
joy and pain,
As storms within and storms without I meet my
love in the rain.
“The rain is in love with you darling; it’s kissing
you everywhere,
Rain pattering over your small brown feet, rain
in your curly hair;
Rain in the vale that your twin breasts make, as
in delicate mounds they rise,
I hope there is rain in your heart, Frangepani, as
rain half fills your eyes.”
Into my hands she cometh, and the lightning of my
desire
Flashes and leaps about her, more subtle than
Heaven's fire;
“The lightning’s in love with you darling; it is
loving you so much,
That its warm electricity in you pulses wherever
I may touch.
When I kiss your lips and your eyes, and your
hands like twin flowers apart,
I know there is lightning Frangepani, deep in the
depths of your heart.”
The thunder rumbles about us, and I feel its tri-
umphant note
As your warm arms steal around me; and I kiss
your dusky throat;
“The thunder'’s in love with you darling. It hides
its power in your breast.
And I feel it stealing o'er me as I lie in your arms
at rest.
I sometimes wonder, beloved, when I drink from
life’s proffered bowl,
Whether there's thunder hidden in the innermost
parts of your soul.”
Out of my arms she stealeth; and I am left alone
with the night,
Void of all sounds save peace, the first faint glim-
mer of light.
Into the quiet, hushed stillness my Frangepani goes.
Is there peace within like the peace without? Only
the darkness knows.
Published in Opportunity, September 1927