Night Rain -- a repost

I was halfway through my last stick,
while sipping sweet hot tea with milk,
when I suddenly
heard a rumble coming from the west.
I stopped for a brief moment to listen,
trying to decipher what the noise was,
where it was coming from.
Could it be an old-beat up car?
A jeepney on its way home from a day of work,
plying through Manila’s busy thoroughfares?
Somehow,
I could not make sense of what the rumble was.
Slowly,
the noise grew louder.
Could it be rain?
I looked at the evening sky.
No stars were in sight,
even the moon seems to be out for the night.
As the noise seems to approach me,
I felt a gush of strong wind,
not the usual cold night breeze.
Still, the noise seems to have a mind of its own,
slowly drawing nearer.
Then,
like soft pebbles,
drops of rain poured,
onto the streets,
onto the plants,
into my roof.
It was an extraordinary experience,
waiting for the rain,
waiting for the drops to come pouring from the sky,
for this gift from the dark firmament
to soak the hot sweltering evening.

- 7:55pm, 09 September 2004, Thursday