State Forest — Summary

We drive through a small rainstorm that seems lost, too.

Learn Poems app

Try the Learn Poems app

Everything from the website trainer, and more: new exercises, voice recording and sharing, reminders, quick review.

The whole poem is a single sentence, and its surprise is in the last word. "We drive through a small rainstorm that seems lost, too." That "too" matters. Before we reach the rain, it quietly tells us that the people in the car already feel lost, or at least a little unsure of where they are. We never get an explanation, which makes the feeling more believable.

The title suggests a forest road, a place where it's easy to lose your bearings. The rainstorm is "small," so it isn't a threatening storm. It's something almost endearing, a patch of weather that has wandered off from the rest of the sky. The speaker looks at it with gentle humor and a bit of sympathy, as if it were a companion.

The mood is quiet, wry, and slightly wistful. Being lost here isn't frightening. It's shared, and it's softened by noticing something odd and lovely outside the window.

Read also

More by Dave Bonta

All poems
ContemplativeDave Bonta

Fairy Bells

Prosartes lanuginosa Their ringing isn’t obvious; you need the ear of an anchorite to find them.
CheerfulDave Bonta

Homunculus

Within my mind a mind I long to tame— a left boy, a little Hercules, the king of ham.