Rain or Shine
Rain or Shine - meaning Summary
Public Decay, Private Complicity
The poem confronts urban indifference by juxtaposing zoo vultures gorging on carrion with a destitute man reduced to eating his own excrement. The speaker recognizes the man as a former mailman whose genial phrase once brightened days, which heightens the irony. The poem indicts social systems that nourish predatory institutions while allowing individuals to collapse, using stark imagery and dark humor to expose collective responsibility and moral decay.
Read Complete AnalysesThe vultures at the zoo (all three of them) sit very quietly in their caged tree and below on the ground are chunks of rotten meat. The vultures are over-full. Our taxes have fed them well. We move on to the next cage. A man is in there sitting on the ground eating his own shit. I recognize him as our former mailman. His favorite expression had been: "Have a beautiful day." That day I did.
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