Monsoon Sky

 for Susan

by David Chorlton / August 22nd, 2021

Is one night’s sky the next day’s mood?
Dreams inside the pillowy clouds
might spill out, or else the storm they portend
scatter them for a flash flood
to wash away. It’s good advice,
taking the news these days in bite-sized pieces;
have the lightning
pick and choose which story
to internalize; listen to the morning rain
rather than the latest miseries. There’s a continent
of thunder rolling overhead. Information
speeding all around the globe. Sleep well.
Wake early. Watch the mountain
warm to life. Listen for the wheels inside
the Earth to groan a little, but that’s the sound
that tells us they are turning.

David Chorlton lived in Vienna for most of the 1970s before moving to Phoenix. It was an exchange of wind and rain for the desert heat and a cultural shift. He has a non-fiction book published this year that tells the story of a 1961 murder near Vienna, for which one of his cousins was wrongly convicted. That is "The Long White Glove," from New Meridian Arts. Read other articles by David.

This article was posted on Sunday, August 22nd, 2021 at 8:02am and is filed under Poetry.