Stormy Weather

Before Jesus Loves Me or The Wheels on the Bus,
there was Stormy Weather. Not more important 
than Sunday School
or interactive tunes with cognitive building properties, 
it just came first, dripping out my mother's fingers 
onto the piano keys,
billowing out her throat in clear alto raindrops caught in the air.
Don't know why 
there's no sun-up-in-the-sky
Stormy weather. 
Since my man and me ain't together.
It's rainin' all the time.
Singing along on the piano bench, caught up in the storm, not
knowing what the words meant, what emotions hid behind 
the cloud of her voice.
Later, I sang it in the backseat on trips,
down highways when I turned 16, then rocking my own babies
as they sucked life's milk during the night. Even later,
as I rocked grandchildren any chance I got.
All I do is pray the Lord above will let me 
walk in the sun once more.
Stormy days like today, it's easy to welcome the blues, let them
come inside to get dry and warm, set a spell by the fire.
Knowing they won't stay, can't stay.
Sunshine drives the blues out, 
leaving only their melodies behind.


Stormy Weather Songwriters: CHAPLIN, SAUL / FREEMAN, L.E. / HOLINER, MANN / NICHOLS, ALBERTA / CAHN, SAMMY

(c) Ellen Gillette, 2012