After the Rain

After the last two days (which seemed like the Biblical 40) of soaking rain,

it looks clean outside.

The cars have shed their post-snow spotty-dirt skins.

The sidewalks are swept clean from the constant rain

so that the leftover leaves have washed down the street.

The sky has been bright blue all day instead of dull gray

and tonight the sunset is visible again.

People's yards look as if they have been scrubbed.

The messy frozen buds have dropped off and the berries are bright,

inviting the birds.

And grass is growing.

And in my garden,

the shoots of the daffodils are poking their green spikes

up through the dirt.