I went on a drive today. I hadn't intended to. It started out as a Wal-Mart run, but then my trip was soon hijacked by the sudden impulse to revisit Route 26 - my old friend. Somewhere along the drive I started to recall this piece by Richard Brautigan. It is nice and homey, after a fashion.

I have been assigned to bring in a poem to my British and American Poetry class tomorrow and explain why I like it. I don't know that I'll be able to bring this in, simply because I don't know if I have the right words.


IT'S RAINING IN LOVE  

I don't know what it is,
But I distrust myself
When I start to like a girl
               A lot.

It makes me nervous.
I don't say the right things
Or perhaps I start
               To examine,
                               Evaluate,
                                              Compute
               What I am saying.

If I say, "Do you think it's going to rain?"
and she says, "I don't know,"
I start thinking:  Does she really like me?

In other words
I get a little creepy.

A friend of mine once said,
"It's twenty times better to be friends
               with someone
than it is to be in love with them."

I think he's right and besides,
its raining somewhere, programming flowers
and keeping snails happy.
               That's all taken care of.                         

                               BUT

if a girl likes me a lot
and starts getting real nervous
and suddenly begins asking me funny questions
and looks sad if I give the wrong answers
and she says things like,
"Do you think it's going to rain?"
and I say, "It beats me,"
and she says, "Oh,"
and looks a little sad
at the clear blue California sky,
I think:  Thank God, it's you, baby, this time
               Instead of me.

“I am young and I'm alive
I want to talk about things
I am young and I own my life
I need to talk about it, baby

I am one but I asked for two
I didn't get anything
This puppet's lonely without you
It's tough to walk without strings

I do my dance in the round

I'm right on track but this state is frail
You slip out and derail

I do my dance in the round
So people clap your hands
Clap your hands

I wanna do it right this time
I wanna step in time
I wanna do it right this time, yeah!

Clap your hands

I gotta get get it right this time
I wanna step in time
I wanna do it right this time

I do my dance in the round

I am young, coming at you live
People gonna talk about me
When I'm done, please hang me high
For everybody to see

Cause I do my dance in the round
So people clap your hands

I wanna get it right
I'm dyin' to get it right
I wanna get it right
I'm dyin' to get it right”

- "In the Round," The Cardigans.

Find it. Listen to it. Though complete strangers, you and I will be so much closer tonight.