Clouds - Kerry Lichlyter

[Larry Robinson]

Clouds

My brother is a birder.
He has a life list 
and when he adds new birds
it’s considered polite
to feign excitement.
And I am excited
for him.

But I’m a cloudspotter.
So far this is a much less
legitimized pasttime. 
When I remark on a cool cloud
or a sky phenomenon,
and there are lots—
halos,  coronas, glories, sun dogs,
cloud iridescence, virga, fallstreak holes—
cumulus, stratus, cirrus
and their genus and species and varieties—
it tends to make people self-conscious.
Or silent.
Or bored.
Kinda like when I used to
quote Shakespeare to my kids.
They hated it.
Still do.

What’s wrong with Shakespeare?
Doesn’t anybody look up?

One of these days
The Cloud Appreciation Society
will have a meet in the US.
Like minds
who like clouds.
On that day
Earth’s water atmosphere
will get its due.

No frenetic birds flitting from branch to branch,
but slow-moving arabesques
of water vapor and droplets 
and ice crystals.

Which remind us
as the stars do at night
that life
is sometimes          

miraculous.

	- Kerry Lichlyter