ISSUE 15
February 2001

Andrew Shields

 

Andrew Shields was born in Michigan in 1964, and raised in Michigan, Ohio, and California. He has lived in Europe since 1991; these days he earns his living teaching English at the University of Basel in Switzerland. His poems, prose, and translations have appeared or are forthcoming in PN Review, Poetry, Grand Street, Cross Connect, Smiths Knoll, and Talking River Review. His published translations of poetry include work by Durs Grunbein, Anne Duden, Brigitte Oleschinski, and Joachim Sartorius from the German, and by Jacques Reda from the French.
First Rain in Delhi    Click to hear in real audio


She heard the peacocks on the roof
calling out to the August rains
the clouds loomed on the horizon
the thunder and the peacock's cries
brought children into the streets
with the first drops falling and the rising
smell of newly wet earth
she ran out in her petticoat to play
with the neighborhood children in the rain
soaking them dancing till her mother
called her in she was now too old
to dance in the rain so she stood at the window
her face against the glass watching
the children in the street and listening
to thunder and the peacocks calling
to her from the roof calling her
up to where the birds spread out
their tails with the eye of god upon them
calling she began to understand
mounting the peacock's back flying
up into the storm among
lightning bolts and the rising smell
of the thirsty earth drinking this
the monsoon season's first rain

 

 

Andrew Shields: Poetry
Copyright � 2000 The Cortland Review Issue 15 — The Cortland Review