March 15, 2006
I had an experience last night
I’d had a rough day at work
with a new crisis du jour
and I didn’t want to just
go home and be sad
So I called Bill and
he was taking the ferry back from Oakland
so I went down to the ferry building to meet him
But I was early so first I walked around inside
and calmed down by gazing at the cupcakes and flowers
the fruit and olives and ceramics
Then I went outside where it was prematurely getting dark
due to all these great big towering rain clouds
in various shades of light gray and dark gray
but it wasn’t dark yet
The sky was a phenomenon
with about a million shades and shapes
and little black silhouettes of birds and airplanes going across it
It wasn’t raining but the pavement was shiny with rain
and all the buildings were wet and dark-colored
their lights just coming on in all shades of orange
And the bay was a mossy grayish green
I sat down on a bench with a view of the bridge to wait
and suddenly realized I could see it raining in Oakland
that big gauzy streaky curtain in the distance
as if a cloud was reaching all the way down to the ground
And as I watched the rain moved sideways
from south to north
revealing downtown buildings on its right edge
and obscuring cranes in the port with its left edge
And then I saw that the traffic on top of the bridge
moving slowly sideways in the opposite direction
And one huge faded red and black tanker ship
heaved into view also headed south to north
Little blue lights came on
around the dock where the ferry would land
and were reflected in the water
After a while I saw the boat coming
more or less straight at me
I watched it until it was quite close
then walked down
to the end of the gangway to meet Bill
feeling immeasurably healed
image source is here
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