City in the Rain

my feet carried me through
the crowded streets of
new york city, where everyone is
constantly jostling to be noticed, for space,
for a chance in the bright white spotlight of fame.
but in new york city, everything is
gray
gray
gray
and the spotlights hardly ever appear.
it was a tuesday around two o’clock – my hour off,
and i was just trying to make it through the
hustling-bustling-moving-pushing
insanity
of the city of buildings that scrape the sky.
the sky was overcast,
a pressing fog of gray that perfectly matched
the gray sidewalks and roads
of the city where it had rained the night before.
but then it became
not a city-where–it-just-rained,
but a city-that’s-raining-now.
hundreds of people
rushed to get out of the sudden
downpour of fat gray droplets
splashing happily onto the gray hats and coats
and shoes and ties
of the boring gray crowd of business people
that always has somewhere to go right now
that is always in a hurry
that gasped and ran in their well-heeled dress shoes
from the rain.
Me? I stood there in my
gray hat and coat and shoes and tie
as a boring gray business person
who always has somewhere to go right now
who is always in a hurry
who did not gasp and run in my well-heeled dress shoes
from the rain.
i stood there
my head tilted upward
my tongue out to catch the water
the blessing from the sky
and all of a sudden,
one ray
of beautiful buttery sunlight
broke through the gray
of everything i saw
and for a second,

i 
was
in
the
spotlight.