A mesmerizing pattern created by pollen in a rain puddle.Based on my time in the Southeastern US I think I have a pretty good idea what an alien invasion will actually look like. It won't be the awesome explosions of a summer blockbuster, nor the insidious invasion of pod people who look like us but harbor a secret killer. I'm sure it will look like the annual pollen storms that blanket my fair state every year in March and April. For one to two weeks, depending on rain or lack thereof, we are blanketed by yellow dust that creeps everywhere. It seeps inside, despite closed windows or doors. It billows across roads in sheets, like powdery snow. While it's here, none but the uninitiated try to fight it, one might as well rail against the tides. Car washes sit vacant, as the dust will only stick to any remaining water after you wash it off. Brooms and vacuums idle in closets as their wheezing and pushing only encourage the dust to move around more. It covers everything and everyone. We live with our invader in our homes, in our offices, in our bodies.
Finally the rains come, and the invader looses its grip and retreats down drains and lies in the mud at the bottom of ditches. We have a day or two of sugar frosted puddles and then the invasion is over. We wash our cars and sweep our porches and go back to our daily life.
