The Man-Cloud

                                by Ralph Fletcher

In a buzzing morning meadow

when the sun was not yet high

I thought I saw a man-cloud

walking in the sky.

My brother saw it differently.

He told me with a laugh

that what I’d seen was actually

an ice-skating giraffe.

“Can’t you see the way he’s gliding?

With those long legs see him striding?

I distinctly see a tall giraffe

walking in the sky.”

I didn’t stop to disagree

or tell him he was wrong.

I saw a man-cloud walking,

and wished to go along. 

H2O

                        by Ralph Fletcher

The recipe

         for water is

the same as

         it’s always been:

two parts

         hydrogen

one part

         oxygen.

Two-to-one

         that’s the rule

to make a water

         molecule.