Cloud Gathering

Twilight time driving home
serious clouds climb
like blurry nursery rhymes
but this one had a tail
and wings that looked real;
a monster with a sense of humor.
But what does a cloud care
riding on thin air?

Just now my mother said
we’re going to get your hair cut
tomorrow after school.

So there goes the ponytail
I’ve grown since third grade.
Then I began to wonder
what species of cloud
with two wings and a tail
would lose its monster appeal
just before suppertime
on the ride home?

But what does a cloud care
about a student in middle school
imagining cut hair?