Rain (October)

October rains in the night, reassuring sound on roof and garden. Heat all day, intent on more heat. Dry look of cricket grounds is drier, walking home, drear. French doors open for supper, the green square of long garden in the frame fading to black. We finish our wine. Reading, writing, designing. At midnight the wind that sounds like rain is more heat pushing branches, rattling objects. Cats sleep through, unbeknownst, in cool-off mode. But at three three-thirty we awake to the rain, free of anxiety or want, of all the names that make us smile or fret or wonder.