in the rain

The snails were on the move today in the early morning rain, slimily traversing sidewalks and grassy lawns, hellbent on getting underfoot. I tried to avoid them on my walk downtown to meet Mom after her dental surgery but got distracted momentarily by a flowering tree all glimmering and glistening in the raindrop-filled sky. And then crunch. I felt terrible, and turned back to assess the damage inflicted on the poor little gastropod. There it was, shell flattened, oozing its slimy self out into a puddle. I looked around and noticed similarly shaped splats all over the sidewalk, reminding me of the ubiquitous black smears you find on New York City sidewalks and subway platforms, and the disgust I felt upon learning that all those millions of little black splats were formerly wads of chewing gum indiscriminately expectorated. I've been feeling a little bit like a Dorothy today, whisked off to a rain-drenched utopia, missing her beloved concrete city, wondering if it's preferable to tread on other people's spit-out chewing gum or on the backs of innocent (at least in this context) migrating snails.