Caribou Cloud

A caribou cloud grazes

     on the blue plains,

its back dispersing,

     hindquarters laid out,

rump and thigh

     on a butcher block.

These days are wide,

     a thumbprint reminder

of lowtide's high, defunct

     desert in smog-rippled heat,

chalk bones of the beast

     turned to chandeliers,

dream drowned

     in the watering hole sky.