A cloud -- a leaf shaped cloud -- raised by the wind

and high above the earth -- but not too high--

that clustered formed a tapestry of sky

suspended over the air-skin heaven

drew my eyes toward its trunk and branches

I see what oak has cast in wooden form

when water parted into hew and foam

like once original but unmade patterns

from traces of its outlines comes a trunk

that higher than beyond it now is shorn

splashed across celestial looms the vision

leaves as tenderly that bloomed of thunder

misted in its arbor and its canopy

tattered by the wind a stem of beauty