Richard Brautigan
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,
it’s 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.