Unpublished

The cloud

went unpublished.

It returned in a SASE

I chose to be grey

for I knew its return

in a day overcast like this

would seem just like

any other cloud.

Clouds justifying rejection

for being altogether cloudy.

While resending it

I pasted, not a fork,

but bird feet,

to an envelope painted

with feathers in fire,

hoping it would reach

shortly before evening.

In case it didn't

I kept a transparent SASE

one could hold it

up against a sky,

and see clouds in it, dead arms,

teething missiles headed to locations.

Clouds bleeding along

their scratch marks

from bird feet.