Why does it smell like that when the rain falls?
Why does it smell like that in the forest when the rain falls,
thought the frog, and he asked the shrubs
and bushes, leaves and thorns,
but they could only shake yes or no
when some wind passed by.
He thought everything would always smell the same
since everything looked the same:
he was a green frog in forest greens,
and there were loads of green apples
hanging from green apple trees.
He imagined all that colour
holding hands and hands together–
but what about the days that it rained?
The forest smelled so different in the leaky weather!
Maybe it was because of the apple trees.
Maybe the apples were such good friends with the rain
that the green swelled to an extraordinary new smell.
And always the frog felt like something very exciting fell down:
a new bicycle, a present, or a train!
The frog wanted to know if he could become friends
with the rain too,
then he could help make the forest smell all new.
He put the rain to the test
and he thought it best
to let the droplets melt on his tongue;
then he would find out what the water to the
green could have done.
But he tasted nothing special!
Nothing frizzy, ditzy, or blitzy at all!
The frog thought that this must mean
that not all green was entirely the same.
He was a frog and he was green,
but he wasn't like the apples, trees,
shrubs or leaves.
Still, he knew he was friends with the rain,
even if it was in a different way.
He didn't know how the forest and all the other
greens smelled so nice exactly,
but he knew he liked the forest,
when it did or didn't rain,
and the forest liked him all the same!
The rain was very happy that it could
make the frog so very happy,
the droplets had always thought themselves
nothing special: they simply fell!
And from that day, the forest greens helped the frog
train himself to hear when the first droplets fell–
now he could go out immediately
to enjoy to the fullest the wet green smell!
word count: 328
