Bear Face Cloud

"Watching storm clouds roll

in can be interesting," he said

after seeing a picture of a bear

face in a thunderhead I took

off my porch in an instant

of attention before it was gone.

Not all storms are so willing

to be announced;

                          the suddenness 

of some beg the meaning

;of "the readiness is all" 

as clearly inadequate.

And yet

            if I review the history

of the storms in my life ,

I might reconsider in my hindsight

there was a foresight

of a storm beyond the weather

of the moment.

                       Like that prophet

whose storm against the priests

of Baal

           was but hand-sized:

unseen, unnoticed to the unlooking

eye or heart. . . .

                           But I never had a storm

cloud with a bear face in it;

the storm the bear announced never

came, the cloud changed shape

and passed away.

                          "Later, another day,"

I thought, my eyes scanning the skies. 

-Byron Hoot