In the new cloud park,
\nthe forest ranger pulls on his gumboots
\nand steps out into mist.
\nHe’s accustomed to trees,
\nand he doesn’t know quite what to do
\nwith the clouds in his care.<\/p>\n
Yes, he lied to the park superintendent,
\ntold him he had experience in skyscaping.
\nThe superintendent believed
\nbecause he wanted to. <\/p>\n
Skyscapers are in demand, now,
\nin this wet, rainy climate.
\nForest rangers, not so much
\nwith so many of the forests gone.<\/p>\n
He wasn’t sure he could take one more season
\nin the fire belt. He’ll learn how
\nto sculpt the clouds so people on the ground,
\nand in penthouse apartments can look up<\/p>\n
See something besides the constant rain.
\nIt’s either too much or not enough,
\nfloods or fire. Clouds
\nare a tourist attraction now,<\/p>\n
attracting visitors from the dry zones.
\nSome enterprising real estate agents
\nhave been renting out balconies
\nin the clouds.<\/p>\n
With a shovel, he beats the mist into a froth,
\nand with a custom made spatula, forms the high cloud,
\nspreads it like fondant. Briefly, the sun breaks through
\nmaking the frosting of his cloud cake pink<\/p>\n
It’s a quick show, before the bottom falls out
\nand the rain begins again.
\nGood work, the superintendent says.
\nYou might as well go home now. It will rain<\/p>\n
until morning. The hours are erratic,
\nbut at least it’s a job. He changes into street waders,
\nslides down the tube, and goes home.
\nThe smell of fresh sourdough greets him at the door.<\/p>\n
While he eats his bread and soup, he dreams of designs.
\nIt can’t be cake every day. He thinks of an old movie,
\nwonders how hard it would be to make a cloud Godzilla.
\nWould the folks below even know who it was?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In the new cloud park, the forest ranger pulls on his gumboots and steps out into mist. He’s accustomed to trees, and he doesn’t know quite what to do with the clouds in his care. Yes, he lied to the park superintendent, told him he…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":665,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1136],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-half-marathon-poem","category-official-marathon-prompts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/665"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96088"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96088\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":96637,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96088\/revisions\/96637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}