Rain Delay

By night, the sound of neighbourhood hoses
chattered with artificial rain until dawn
 
silenced their coils and grass glistened.
With evening, every blade burnt blond,
 
I heard the rasp of lawn chair voices,
nicotine musings uttered from garages,
 
men with beer in one hand, despair in the other,
and every vanity was contained in thirsts
 
no earthly mercies could ever slake,
the tears of broken angels no one dried.

Bruce Meyer

Bruce Meyer is the author of 70 books of short stories, flash fiction, poetry, and non-fiction. His stories have won or been shortlisted for numerous national and international prizes including this year's Lynn Fraser Fiction Prize from Freefall, the Fish Fiction Prize (IRE), the Bath Short Story Prize, the Carter V. Cooper Prize for Fiction, and a special Editor's commendation from the Edinburgh Flash Fiction Prize, His most recent collections of fiction are "Toast Soldiers" (Crowsnest Books), "Down in the Ground" (Guernica Editions) and the forthcoming collection of flash fiction, "Sweet Things" (Mosaic Press), and a collection of longer stories, "Magnetic Dogs" (Guernica). With Michael Mirolla, he co-edited the forthcoming anthology, "This Will Only Take a Minute" (Guernica) which is the first Canadian anthology of flash fiction. He lives in Barrie, Ontario, and is Professor of Communications at Georgian College.

You might be interested in