waiting for the rain

Yesterday, I saw the most beautiful sight. A solitary cumulus cloud was drifting far above the horizon across my line of vision and the only bit of open sky left to be enjoyed from my balcony. It was lit by an internal light that grew stronger and faded at different times, as though a gigantic firefly was trapped within it. Now and then, a sharp and slender streak of lightning would course through one part of its vaporous body, then another. This cloud moved slowly along my line of vision, carrying its brilliant bolts of lightning, through a sky that was a watercolour gray-blue and deepening before my very eyes. The cool air stirred and I wondered when the rain that this cumulus was heralding, would begin.