By: Jetta Whitehurst
She thinks -imagines, surmises, supposes, anticipates.
The house doesn’t have the room for it all.
The hot, exposing sun might melt it all away.
But the rain, just outside, nurtures,
Nurtures the thoughts, the memories, the emotions, the feelings, the ideas, the knowledge, the awareness.
I know who I am in the rain.
The raindrops feed into my soul, where I store them.
For me. All of them are mine.
The wet weeds hug my body.
The flowers soak it in, just as I do.
Here, the world doesn’t look the same as it always does in the sunlight. After the clouds clear, the weeds and flowers will have even more to say. I’ll speak with them.
But for now, I reach out my hands.
And I remember.
I rode to school every morning in my dad’s little red truck. On the first day of first grade, I was
called a boy because of how short my hair was. I was the tallest girl on the soccer team. At
recess, I picked honeysuckles. I would play Just Dance for hours to get the highest score on
every song, remember?
I was cast in my first show. I skipped school every time I had a chemistry test. I remember I
never cried but when I watched Little Women (2019) for the first time I cried a lot. I hated my
senior pictures.
I fainted in Kroger once. I bought my first vehicle.
I remember.
With every drop, I feel the rain, and I remember.
I know who I am.
Through the sheets falling from the sky, there are splashes of color in this peace.
I watch the sheets fall. I let the splashes hit. I allow the coolness in.
Those drops hit the palms of my hands and follow the lines, dips, and curves.
I let my hair down, looking up as it falls down my back. I let my face feel everything there is to
feel.
I take in the renewal that meets me,
And I know.
I know that I will only continue to unearth the meaning I seek.
Jetta Whitehurst is a recent graduate from Kennesaw State University with a double major of Journalism and Theatre. She currently works as Visual Arts Instructor at Woodstock Arts and as a member of RepTour, Woodstock Arts’ Repertory Touring Troupe focusing on education and literature through the performing arts. She can often be found hiking, traveling, writing poetry, and hanging out with her little brother.