7.31.2025 – first they were just clouds

first they were just clouds
they swelled, swirled, hung very still …
then they broke open

My first thought seeing this cloud over Red Cedar Elementary School in Bluffon, SC was that someone finally stumbled upon that atomic bomb the US Air Force lost over Tybee Island back in the ’50’s.

My second thought was of that Alien spacecraft over Los Angeles in the movie, Independence Day.

Then I thought of the poem, Clouds, by Mary Oliver in her book, Why I Wake Early: New Poems (Beacon Press, Boston, 2005) and I thought that this is, I suppose, just one of the common miracles, a transformation, not a vision, not an answer, not a proof, but I put it there, close against my heart, where the need is, and its serves the purpose.

Clouds by Mary Oliver

All afternoon, sir,
your ambassadors have been turning
into lakes and rivers.
At first they were just clouds, like any other.
Then they swelled and swirled; then they hung very still’
then they broke open. This is, I suppose,
just one of the common miracles,
a transformation, not a vision,
not an answer, not a proof, but I put it
there, close against my heart, where the need is, and its serves

the purpose. I go on, soaked through, my hair
slicked back;
like corn, or wheat, shining and useful.