Mostly Elegantly

The day was full of towered
clouds – cumulus accumulating
cumulus – more proud than
angry: save for two or three
small snits of spitting rain,

these atmospheric empresses
appeared content to primp
and plump themselves, parade,
and snub each other just enough
to pique each other’s volume up:

Edwardian and prim, but brimming
with a pressured volupté
that made one more than guess
another day, they will transgress
to far more rabid densities

and roar and pour: today they
managed mostly elegantly to ignore
each other: superior mothers-in-law –
resentful new-wed wives: they
carried on their ostentatiously

remote and separate lives,
almost decorously wondering
(well this side of thundering) how
it was fathomable they could
occupy the self-same sky.

.