How often clouds construct a comfy white coverlet to

Snap across the sky above our

Home, dunes, beach, the lake beyond

A visual coziness in imagination which

Belies the vast span of beauty we live within:

Dearth of sunlight.

Other time the puffers, feathers, and anvils,

More menacing misfits,

Race north for

Some possible rumble in Canada, or south to

Flex their shoulders for revelry in Chicago,

Her pedestrians and cyclists tipping for balance,

Raising their high-rise jinks like hide-and-seek, as

Noisy trains thundering into that city on worn-slick rails.

—-  Autumn, 2013