The Cloud

No, I don’t want to walk with you,

I’m sorry,

I want to walk with the cloud up there,

the dark, looming, vaporous mass.

I can smile at you,

laugh at your jokes,

help you with the work,

but that’s quite all.

I want to walk with the cloud up there

and become shapeless and massless

and melt into a great sorrow

that descends to dissolve into the dirt

that I’ve smiled at and laughed at

and helped create.