Albion

It crept up on me yesterday morning. Rain for the first time in months, staining the asphalt dark and settling the dust in the air, lending a chilly edge to the wind and washing the cars new. Sitting in a favourite cafe for breakfast but seeing the street with foreign eyes. Eating on the outside, alien inside. Strange but safe. The ozone in the air. Stopped at traffic lights in Crystal Palace in the seamless rain. My favourite corner of my uncle's local. The checkouts of the Tesco in Horley. The beginning of such a powerful longing for England.