“Snapdragon” has published my poem, “Cumulus,” in their online summer 2024 issue about climate change. You can read all the powerful work by going to Http://snapdragonjournal.com. I don’t write about issues of importance as often as I should. This spring I have been focusing on social concerns more seriously and have crafted several poems I am proud of including this one. I am thankful to the editors of Snapdragon for bringing the needs of our beautiful world forward for both writers and readers to take to heart.
Cumulus
When I first learned clouds move,
I was three years old. Lesson
in the terror of change. The villain
was wind who pushed and shredded,
the same ghost who chafed my skin.
Over the years I developed affection
for breezes, the way all love involves
a tinge of fear. The way I forgave
my own visible breath, leaving.
Throughout my life, the winds have risen
until now I see the atmosphere unraveling,
clouds and leaves and dust all one earth-shift.
Some say the sunsets are more brilliant
these days. I see them with the same
wariness I glimpse the false rainbow
in an oil slick, poison mistaken
for pearl. Clouds outside my window
do not hold the same rain I knew
as a child. Less river, more smoke. Vapor
I imagined into animals now their slow
erasure. Unless we envision a fresh wind.
Until we change the shape of our fear.