gray afternoon

I love gloomy, wet afternoons. People scurrying, scattering, surprised by sudden wetness. The weather turning the streets upside down and shaking them free of people. Dark clouds pregnant with rain. The intensity and desperation of the rain as it crescendos with the thunder, falling in white sheets, layers of a curtain outside the window, stinging a hand put out to feel the water. afterwards, the sky paler, spent from the effort of storming. perhaps the sun plays a cameo role; often, its brightness is only visible behind the clouds. doesn't matter. there is more beauty in gray.