We cling to bodies, yet clouds don’t cling to their forms, even from moment-to-moment. Even when a cloud is, it shifts unendingly. They precipitate from the breath of the eternal in long, wet parades, to be spent in hours or even minutes.
Clouds as a class of things may exist throughout the universe of planets for hundreds or thousands of years, like Jupiter’s Great Red Spot. But beyond this thousand year storm and the Magellanic Cloud of intrstellar dust and the Oort Cloud that surrounds the solar system and some others, the vast majority of clouds, be they stellar or earthly, are never named. No ceremony accompanies a cloud’s birth, no dirge for its death. We may cling to such celebrations and to such grieving for our own bodies, holding them up as sacred. Yet if clouds dissolve into the seas of anonymity, our temporary forms, a little less temporary perhaps than white clouds on a windy day, must be ushered to the same fate. Why, then, become ceremonious over the beginnings of our bodies? Or weep over their ends? Are we not all merely clouds in the making, clouds in the raining, or clouds in the ending?
© 2022 by Michael C. Just
Mike’s novel, The Dirt: The Journey of a Mystic Cowboy, is available in softcover or eBook formats through Amazon.
You can purchase the book through this website. Or go straight to amazon at https://www.amazon.com/s?k=the+dirt+journey+of+a+mystic+cowboy&crid=1S40Q4BXSUWJ6&sprefix=the+dirt%3A+journey+of+a+m%2Caps%2C180&ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_23
Mike’s other titles, including The Crippy, The Mind Altar, and Canyon Calls, are available through this website or through Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B002
Four of his short stories have recently been published online:
Lies, Ltd. has been published by The Mystery Tribune @ Lies, Ltd.: Literary Short Fiction by Michael C. Just (mysterytribune.com)
The Obligate Carnivore has been published by the Scarlet Leaf Review @ Category: MICHAEL JUST – SCARLET LEAF REVIEW
I See You, Too has been published by the 96th of October @ I See You, Too – 96th of October
Offload, a short story about a man who can heal any disease, is now live and can be read at The Worlds Within at Offload – The Worlds Within