This
rain, cold, already
has
drenched my American
walking
shoes and socks,
each
step a frigid squish
to
the tune of Yankee Doodle,
like
stepping through snow
covering
amber waves of grain.
Summer’s
last day, already
embracing
fall, ivy leaves
barely
beginning to redden
against
a gray-white but no blue
sky,
a few yellows dotting
the
trees, a slight turn
to
impressionism.
The
park’s perimeter, already
surrounded
by commuters in cars
and
on bicycles, a rainy mayhem
of
horns and watery whooshes
splashing
unwary walkers and
joggers
in the dawn’s early light,
the
back of my English sweatshirt
already
soaked by a combination
of
steady rain and small umbrella.
I’m
smiling.
Photograph: St. James Park, London,
taken Sept. 22, 2015. The London Eye is barely visible above the trees in the left center of the photograph.
