Cloud Travels

Clouds have travelled where I never have.
They’ve crested the Himalayan peaks,
Slid down gulfs and gullies,
Soared over Peru
And skimmed the Atlantic.
They’ve peeped into crofts in the highlands
And rolled over vast Australian plains
They’ve seen wild horses gallop in the Camargue
Watched penguins rearing their young
Drawn a blanket over the green of Ireland
And hovered at the perimeter of deserts.
They’ve been watched by the people of China
Of Russia and Africa,
The Inuit and the native Indian,
The elderly, the busy, the young, the handicapped
And a baby’s newly focused eyes.
Their shadows have blessed every surface
Of this earth, the rivers and seas
Ice caps and islands
Their shapes and colours
Many and variable,
Dissolving and renewing.
They chase cattle in fields
And cause goats to bellow.
They sail to the tropics
And hog night-time horizons
And though I have yet to travel far
The clouds have always found time to be with me,
…at Home.

© Jacqueline Mai – March 2008