Clouds

Grey-white, surreal, fantastic,
Light as cotton,
They scud, half-hearted, across the sky,
More intent on hiding the Sun
Than roving eastwards,
They deny its warmth
To us.
Breaking at their radiant edge
To shear into smaller and smaller fragments,
Seeming to rotate,
Yet in layers stacked,
Round and slowly round
They go,
Evaporating, trailing, tearing
Until even the very wisps
Disappear to leave…
Nothing but azure…
And the Sun’s disc,
As pure bright,
Unforgiving as before,
We watch, full prone,
Our heads nesting on the ling
As the clouds,
Silent bring…
Their load of tears…
And cry freely on the fragile land…
Before moving off…
And out to sea.

© Hugh D. Loxdale, Love and the Sea, Brambleby Books (2010),

ISBN-10: 0955392888
ISBN-13: 978-0955392887

Written on the Island of Sylt, north Germany,
1st August, 2001