It might be the mix
between cotton candy fluff
and wispy smoke-like edges;
or the orange-red color reflecting
sun from some obscured direction.
Or, the ones tinged gray that
signify rain may be coming,
saying nothing definite.
Maybe it’s the way they
disappear in the night sky
and are still there sneakily,
requiring nearness to moonlight
lightning strikes or
some such extreme to reveal them.

Riding in the sky
even up with them
is disconcerting certainly,
white, opaque, solid looking
billowing, rolling, smooth,
large lump looking;
as the plane
doesn’t hit and crack up
but sails right through them.

Any one could be reason enough
for my stomach to flip
whenever I look up or out
and think on clouds looming.

Or, maybe it’s because
I can’t help looking
from above or below
whatever I’m doing
with my whole heart and imagination
captured by the clouds, magical
breathtaking, dizzying and stunning.

It could be that.

©2009 Shari Lynne Smothers

Prompt: Write title phrase “Clouds [blank]” and a related poem. This is my poem for Day 16 of November 2009 PAD Chapbook Challenge, from Poetic Asides.