Cheryl L. DaytecYañgot (Baguio City, Philippines)

We shape clouds soft as baby cotton diapers
Into lovely dreams of salvation
When the white clouds darken sinister
Like the Devil’s hood in the sky
We chase them away into the heavens
Where they retreat from our endless whines
They gather water from earth’s hidden springs
And pour it into the labyrinth of hunger
And want where we are shacked most of the time

The next day, we find
yellow bananas on our breakfast table
And the lively hues on the flowers around us
And then we know: the clouds returned
Not with a vengeance
But sympathy