Rain sings on my roof

in Oakland tonight. I want to gather every vital drop and send it to Kenya, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, Djibouti. Two years of drought, 11 million people facing starvation. Blame global warming, blame corrupt governments, misguided aid policies, environmental devastation, Cold War arms dumping, neoliberal World Bank /IMF thuggery masquerading as "structural adjustment" - the list goes on. The words in my head tonight are from John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath:

"There is a crime here that goes beyond recrimination. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize."

On the phone from Nairobi this morning, my father talked about the water rationing in Nairobi. About the clouds that "gather every afternoon - and then they go away, without giving rain. The heat is intense - Nairobi has never been like this."

I've always loved to fall asleep to the sound of rain. Tonight, it's a dirge.