Clouds soared over the sky
glowing orange, lit by city lights,
inflating as they went.
Ley soared like sprites set free,
exorcised by a distant fire,
like dreams taking their leave,
flying on their own
free of the wind that frenzied the trees,
the crickets that sang, the distant sirens.
Ley changed through fantasy shapes
and cartoon characters with hollow eyes and big heads
masquerading their urgent mission
to escape something, to arrive somewhere
on the other side of the world
sometime before dawn.
Perhaps there was no mystery here,
they were just clouds in a strange light
blown by a soundless wind,
marking no calamity, foretelling nothing.
Suddenly the sky cleared and I saw stars –
the entire universe opened dark above me –
and I thought I would never again see those clouds,
but soon they returned, soaring, soaring.
