Send sunshine

Is it the Equinox? Something's in the air, maybe it's been the effect of the past weeks of incessant rain. Perhaps all this mildew is releasing spores of insanity. Whatever it is, the citizenry around here is looking pastier, puffier, more lumpy and dumpy that ever. I saw a woman at a bus stop endlessly muttering "I can't believe it, I just can't believe it", as she rummaged through her bag, rearranging bottles in brown paper. I was sitting in the family beauty parlor when an acquaintance from the past resurfaced, drunk. He grabbed my forearm, asking after an illness gone for decades and whether I were angry with him. I told him I just wanted to stay focused and on task as I put his filmsy poncho back on him like a giant infant and ejected him into the rain. That same morning a man shot himself outside the E.R. a couple of blocks away. He wanted to donate his organs. People walk in front of my car as I drive, oblivious of lights or crossing stripes, wearing ill fitting rags and vacant stares. Yesterday I went for a beer at the Tavern. Even though I hid myself away in the old timers' section, another long time acquaintance zeroed in on the empty stool at my side. After some chit chat I asked after his father and anger issues bubbled up to the surface and exploded. He wanted to know if I was still married and I fled. I'm hoping some sunny weather comes along and gives us all a chance to dry out.