He heard it at least weekly from bosses
looking for something striking to anchor

A1 or a section header: Get us a weather
picture. And the photographers would

sigh as they headed out of the office,
into the world, to fulfill the always

challenging assignment. How many
umbrellas, the brighter the better,

and puddles, the splashier the better,
did they scope out, never knowing if

one of their shots would make the next
day’s paper? All these decades later,

the force still runs strong in him,
so, sitting at a stoplight in the rain,

the camera nowadays tucked
into his phone makes it easy

to grab a quick weather shot.
He’s made this picture more than

once, but the drops on the driver’s
side window always render

a unique abstract, and the blurred
lights of a gas station provide

a nice contrast against the gray
day. Through the magic of the air

he sends it to me, a once-upon-a-time
editor who responds that, even

retired for 22 years, he’s still got it,
and if it were up to me,

that baby’d go on A1 tomorrow
with a snappy headline and his byline.