Cloud Gazing
Author: Bill Roberts
Eventually, they all come back,
loved ones who’ve moved to the clouds.
Billowy Grandma most often,
her 12-egg lemon pound cake in hand.
Fast-moving Mama, always in such
a hurry to attend to the next family duty.
Dawdling Papa, reading from a fluffy
stack of books, including the inevitable potboiler.
Brother Max, drifting erratically after
pretending to take Ritalin, disordered bipolarity.
Shrewd sister Emma, the wispy family
matriarch, asking why we’re all so middle-class.
Mysterious older brother Howard, whom I met
only three times – he now floats by weekly.
So many aunts and uncles, usually forming
overhead as if at another family reunion.
Lost friends reappearing, even threatening
bully Pete, about to rain blows on me again.
Teachers, dear teachers, never forgotten for
their wisdom, now challenging me up there.
And the dogs, all my dogs – scampering along
as if once more I’ll give chase someday.
There’s something about clouds, so familiar,
so tempting to fly up, be there with them.
(Published online in 2009 in The Stray Branch)
Note: I often write family-friend remembrances such as this, always slightly different, especially after the loss of someone close. A month ago, I lost sister Carolyn Patricia, beloved Patsy, who was like a surrogate mother to me and my younger siblings, Jimmy, GeeGee and Betty. There is much to write about her and it will come soon. She is painfully missed, by me and all of those she touched. Farewell, Beloved Carolyn Patricia.
