Friendship
The clouds only seem
to rest on the windowsill,
to visit this room
open to the idea of sky.
A small child might wave
hello at the strange cloud
that looks like a giraffe.
A friendship has begun
and it will exactly match
the attention span of two entities.
It could be forty years
or, as here, forty seconds.
The giraffe never dissolves
in the child’s mind.
That happens out of sight.
The child will grow up
and never know
a tiny part inside her
is still waiting for the cloud giraffe.
Because the break-up was mutual
and without rancor.