Senseless Rain

I’m driving,
taking the long way home,
casually making my way through someone
else’s neighborhood,
looking at the houses
in the rain.
their inner lights are
prismed in the drizzle on the windowpanes,
and I wonder what kind of people live in these homes,
and I imagine the interesting looking ones
as my own.

in mid-November
the rain
is cold and senseless.
it may as well be snow.

I’m good in the car though,
windows up,
heated seats getting a little too hot,
wipers wiping,
a good track on the radio.

there is a girl skipping through a parking lot
alone,
her hood up,
a tangle of dirty-blonde hair
adrift on her shoulder.

she turns and looks,
and I look,
quite a bit older than I was expecting,
especially, for a skip in the rain.

her eyes widen
for only a moment looking on.
she had not expected to be spotted skipping,
it seems.

but then
she smiles,
a pretty smile.

I smile back, and
she keeps on
skipping
through the cold rain,
just a little
happier
now,
it seems,
for having been spotted.

too old to be skipping through a parking lot,
rain or not, someone thinks.
but she made my day,
a little less senseless,
a little happier
a little more content.

and off I go.

tomorrow will be better, I think.
there is still time enough to go for a skip in the rain.