Poem: Cloud Parade

Please leave me alone / Don’t buzz me with the news / Take my phone to hell /Don’t babble out your views

{The formatting for this one works ok on your phone if you’re reading it via email. If you’re reading on your phone via browser or Substack app, the formatting breaks and it will work better on laptop or desktop. The formatting for this one is intentional and forms a visual layer to/adds to the whimsy of the piece. Thank you!}

Cloud Parade

Please leave me alone
Don’t buzz me with the news

Take my phone to hell
Don’t babble out your views

The clouds are running quickly now
And I don’t want to miss
	
	There! 
		Polar bear, snowy ghost 
			in a slate-sky storm

		Zeus’s twitching torso
			muscled, bulging black
		
		Sleeping babe, chubby cheeks
			rounder than a heartache

I love you; go away
I’m busy now, you see

	or, better,

turn your ringer off.
             
                Watch cloud parade
                   
                                     with me.

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Not necessary but always appreciated

Why does this exist? (a stuffy artist statement)

I wrote this in April when clouds covered Portland as they always do in the spring. I was tired, and my phone was irritating me and it felt like every time someone talked to me, it was because they wanted me to do something for them. Rest was what I wanted and someone to come lay in the field and look at the clouds for awhile.

After watching the Presidential debate the other night, the beginning of this poem feels appropriate for a whole new set of reasons.

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And now, an Irish blessing because I like those:

May you always have walls for the winds,
A roof for the rain, tea beside the fire,
Laughter to cheer you, those you love near you,
And all your heart might desire.

I post The Sooth episodes on Wednesday mornings and other stuff on Friday mornings

I may also post at other times, but for sure on those days (I shoot for 6:00am PST delivery so we can sip coffee together and celebrate another week done but don’t always quite make that). See you then!

About Rachel

Working on a scifi book series about a girl who just wants to heal her father from his terminal illness but inadvertently sparks an intergalactic incident instead.