Edinburgh, Scotland

Shuttered

I captured clouds
shapeshifters since the eye of time
blinked open
on a curved horizon.

H2O breathed
into the sky
chased by the wind,
illumined by the sun
so that they trailed their cloaks,
red matadors
to tantalise
the night.
But captured clouds
remain the same essential solvency
frozen by the shutter.
I did not mean to steal
their radiant breath
siphoned through lens

to finish
motionless
and matt corralled
on paper.
I should set them free
to roam again the wild ethereal plains
of cumulus and nimbus
where they could change
to storm clouds,
great herds of rain
heading
to arid Africa
or snowladen
crown
the high
Ben Nevis.

© Aine 1995