That’s What It Was Really Like

Have you ever studied clouds in movies,
Archival photographs, television?
Any scene the sky just happens to be

There in the frame, part of the backdrop, but
Not an essential part of the drama,
Not glorious or moody or just so,

Simply some ordinary bit of cloud
Forming and reforming in the background,
Interesting since uninteresting.

There are some very old movies and shows
That in all their fictive carrying on
Just happened to record actual clouds,

Patterns of the way the world was that day,
Nothing worth remarking on, just some clouds,
The actual particulars that were.