Poor Relatives

Robert Morgan

The cloudburst leaves a brown meringue,
a kind of foamy candy on
the pool below the culvert where
the runoff plunged headlong to whip
a head as light almost as air,
as if the ditch possessed by such
a powerful overflow had made
a froth around its mouth, and built
a spume the way a running horse
will sweat a lather on its neck.
The dirty bubbles in the ditch
now seethe and tear to pieces as
they float upon the passing flood,
poor relatives to clouds above.

Robert Morgan is the author of many books of poetry and of fiction, including Dark Energy and Chasing the North Star. He is Kappa Alpha Professor of English at Cornell University, where he has taught since 1971.