In a Cloud

by Chila Woychik

What’s hanging in that tree? 
A thorn in the paw, and oh 
that face. The reaper’s angry, 
the situation critical, for I feel 
the darkness coming, saw it all along. 
There are things I should ask, 
things I should say: 1) I should tell him 
he’s dying. I hear the hiss,
the clacking of an early morning miracle. 
It starts with a screech, then flashes that come—
and all before the silence. He left in a cloud, 
now roams the arched skies where the sun used to be. 
And him, that loose scarf in the wind—
let’s call it a resurrection.

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Chila Woychik is originally from the beautiful land of Bavaria but has lived in the Midwest most of her life. She has been published in Cimarron, Passages North, and others, and has an essay collection, Singing the Land: A Rural Chronology (Shanti Arts, 2020). Chila also edits the Eastern Iowa Review.