When I am still a child and my father a dad

we lie and watch the clouds together,

giving each shape a name and

each other a full half-heart

 

A frog! A bone! Our labrador leaping

from lilypad to frilly lap we laugh

at each other’s preposterous guesses

the sun has traced for us in the marbled sky

 

To be forever stuck in this tranquil haze

wrapped in the mist of word skeletons as

though humans don’t need anything

more — I thought time was on our side

 

Everytime i look at the clouds now i wonder

whether he sees the same rabbit running from

the coiling snake i am whether he sees how

i am the prey that for once chased away the

predator whether the sky opens its arms

and beckons for him to rest in the past as it does

for me.