there will come soft rains

The north side of the neighbors house which is also the front of the house. Yes, really, it is the front of the house.

There will come soft rains

There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground,

And swallows circling with their shimmering sound;

And frogs in the pool singing at night,

And wild plum tree in tremulous white;

Robins will wear their feathery fire,

Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire;

And not one will know of the war,not one

Will care at last when it is done.

Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree,

If mankind perished utterly;

And Spring herself when she woke at dawn

Would scarcely know that we were gone.

This is a poem by Sara Teasdale which I first heard a reading of it on an old time radio show

X-Minus One. This radio show did an adaptation of the short story There Will Come Soft Rains by the science fiction author Ray Bradbury. Ray Bradbury had incorporated the Sara Teasdale poem into the ending of his nuclear war post-apocalyptic short story of the future and named the short story after the poem. I like the poem and refer back to it for a reading from time to time. I have read some of her other poems but I like this one the best. It is also known as her best and most popular poem to which I can attest. The poem is similar to that new television series Life After People which is based on what would happen to our modern buildings if people weren’t around to maintain them. Of course they would get overgrown by vines and other vegetation. When I look at my neighbors house I think that it is an example of the television series Life After People with the vines growing over the house and garage. I sometimes wonder if there will come a point in time when the house will become completely covered over.

The picture above is the east side of the house which faces us.

This is a picture of the garage overgrown with vines.

I don’t know why they don’t keep the vines trimmed back. Perhaps the vines shade the house and help to keep it cool. It is interesting though to watch as the vines make their advance over the house. Hopefully the neighbors won’t wake up one morning to discover that they can’t get their door open because of the vines. I may have to get my machete and hack my way through the vines to rescue them. I know, fanciful thinking. I guess that I watch too many scfi-fi movies. Have a cool day and if the house gets too hot, just let the vines grow over it. Lew