Clouds
Buy Issue for $25 at JHUP- Clouds
Blue sky thunder, far from the front,below it, peace, the storm cannonsunseen, yet the grey smoke clouds hunthigh, scouting above creek tannins
of leaf, of bark, of moss, of stone,the stream, a blend of earthy teas.One green dragonfly stands alonein air. Lavender hides the bees.
The massive cathedral of gum,there, split, at rotted waist, by force,by gravity's will, now a tomb,a signpost: Once, matter of course,
now, a broken thing. So, too, peace.It is all some of us have known,our narrow generation's leaseon this respite we name our own.
But someone paid dear price for this,Someone hated, so we could love,Some lips knew thirst, so ours could kiss,I look up: a black sky above. [End Page 165]
Joseph Dolce holds dual citizenship in Australia and the United States. As a composer/poet, he won the 2017 University of Canberra Health Poetry Prize, was shortlisted in 2020 and 2014 for the Newcastle Poetry Prize and was the twenty-fifth winner of the Launceston Poetry Cup. His most recent collection is entitled At the Noisy Café.
