The Cirrus Sky

I don’t mean
To belabor
This mountain

But I always
Come to it

It must have been
A day like this
With parents
And children
Standing there
When the thinness
Of the air
Came in
And the unobstructed
Distance
Pulled

Feeling this
And its casual
Well-being
I happened to look
Up
And saw it

Over the parched
Horizon
Of brush and oak
And dry pasture

The wind
Spreading
Clouds
Of ice




--Avocet, 2001