Cumulus Cloud

You say, teach me, oh cloud, how to widen my grief so large

Cumulus Cloud

The average cumulus cloud weighs one million 
               pounds. I watch the hung weight of it 
effortlessly mozy in the open air, its soft 
               whispers gliding from country to country, 
                              above the mountains, over the seas. 

               Maybe you are someone who believes in 
                                             miracles. You say, 
                              God can float anything. 

Maybe you are someone who has no room for 
                              belief. You say, 
                              the water droplets of the cloud are so small, 
                                             and so far apart that they don’t hold dense weight. 
And anyhow, clouds don’t actually float, but are 
               lifted by the heat rising off the ground, slowly and 
                              diagonally descending till they 
                                                                             dissipate.

               Maybe that’s the miracle. 
                              Maybe you believe in nothing.
Maybe you don’t know what to believe, 
               stripped of awe. You say, 
               I don’t have time for clouds.
                              I’m late for work. 

               Maybe there is no cloud. Maybe you’re 
a poet. Maybe one million pounds is nothing 
               compared to what one wet mouth can hold. 
                              Maybe there is only the way water gathers, 
               then comes apart. You say, 
               teach me, oh cloud, how to widen my grief 
so large it might then wisp and float by the heat of 
                              a rising love determined to hold me. 
               Show me, wise lake in the sky, 
                              how to carry myself 
                                             slowly 
                                             from day 
                                                            to day.