It rained today, in my rainy town. A gray, steady, cold, Fall rain, carrying the last of the colorful leaves down to blanket cars, sidewalks, roads. My gray car, parked under a particularly leafy tree, wore Dalmatian-like spots of red, gold and orange. Most of the leaves blew off as I drove away, except for one that got stuck under my windshield wiper.
All the way home I drove with a little flash of orange breaking up the variations of gray, from sky to roads to rain to cars. Back and forth across my windshield a little swath of life – or death, I suppose – waving like a mittened hand, more colorful and animate than the living world it passed through.
What a lovely observation!