Saturday, August 31, 2013

purple mushroom cloud




purple mushroom cloud
gilded by the sun's eye-blinding
light descending 
over a host of yellow 
rosin weed in the dry wetland

A gigantic cumulonimbus cloud shaped like a parasol mushroom serves as the canvas for the setting sun to play with purple, gold, indigo, orange and fuchsia. To quote Mary Oliver: "No sky could hold so much light." In the dried up wetland, a thriving stand of chromatic yellow rosin weed glows brightly against the surrounding dark foliage. As I drive home, the cloud slowly spreads out and flattens. Above the cornfield it looks more like an orange shelf mushroom. By the time I reach the hay field with its row of white plastic-wrapped bales, the cloud looks more animal than vegetable, perhaps an endangered copper-scaled pangolin searching for ants.

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