Overcast

It doesn’t begin with the first drop.

It starts minutes earlier.

As the light changes and colors match my mood.

When the leaves start bickering with the wind.

Crackling and rustling.

Then the tiptoeing of messengers from the dark clouds above.

Soon an uneven drumming.

Under the trees, grass still thirsty.

But not for long.

The birds know.

For a rare moment they simply listen.

A strange silence.

I hold my breath with everything around me.

We exhale.

One cool gust brushes my skin.

It carries the smell of a place already wet.

Only then do I know it’s raining.