Light fantastic

For a brief moment, about an hour or so ago, I saw a rainbow hanging low in the sky over towards Hampstead Heath. Winds had lifted the smog from view, a few drops of rain had tantalislingly come and gone, and the sun had caught whatever moisture was left in the air. I caught sight of the rainbow while doing the washing up. I turned away to reach for a plate, turned back, and looked to find the rainbow had gone.

Like the time I saw a shooting star from my bedroom window on a particularly depressed night when I was 18, or when I watched a thunderstorm last two whole hours on an especially wistful evening when I was 24, short outbursts of meteorological mayhem always seem to serve as a bittersweet distraction from the routine and the humdrum in my life. I just hope I don't have to wait six years for another one.