Three Clouds Overhead Started Shouting At Me

Three clouds overhead
started shouting at me.

They shouted something
about an obscure philosopher

named “Nicholas of Cusa.”
Before I could figure out

what the clouds wanted me to know
the wind blew them

too far for me to hear.
Then some clouds just arriving

overhead began to shout
about States’ rights, saying teachers

should teach the Civil War
as a revolutionary conflict

and not as a battle against slavery.
Then another cloud

shouted louder than these clouds
and said television canalizes

neural pathways in the brain,
creating zombies just as cocaine

created zombies in China
in the nineteenth century.

Still another cloud shouted something
I could not make out,

but I definitely
heard the name, “Gloria Steinem.”


It started raining right about then.
I opened my umbrella,

but I could still hear all the shouting.
Someone passing me

pointed upward under his umbrella.
He yelled in my ear.

“Damn these
Sony electric clouds!” he yelled.

I nodded. “In Tokyo,” I said,
“the raindrops

leave little logos
on the sidewalk where they fall.”

The man nodded, too.
We walked past each other.

The wind around us
whistled little jingles.