A VALENTINE POEM BY JAMES TATE. (for our 45th Valentine’s Day)
THE SPLENDID RAINBOW by James Tate
The lightning woke us at about
three A.M.
It sounded like a war was going
on out there,
the drum rolls, the cannons ex-
ploding, the bomb
blasts, the blinding flashes. The
electricity
was out. I found the flashlight and
lit some
candles. The roof was leaking and
the rain
was lashing the windows so
savagely they rattled
in their casings. “What are our
chances of
dying?” Denny asked. “Almost
certain,” I
said. We sat on the edge of the
bed and held
onto one another. The lightning
bolts were striking
all around us. “Denny,” I said,
You are very,
very beautiful and I love you
with all my
heart.” “I’ll take that to my
watery grave,”
she said, “and smile through
eternity.” Then
we kissed and the sun came up
and the rain
stopped and the birds started to
sing, a bit
too loudly. But, what the hell, they
were in
love, too.