Flocked Beyond the Altimeter

On a flight back to LAX from
South Florida, I looked out

Across the slow night’s descent
And it was the clouds that

Captured my attention. Over the
Last few centuries how much

Have they changed? The land
Is soiled by reformation.

The ocean is altered by our perpetual
Waste. The clouds, though,

they might be part of our past
More than any other thing.

Henry Cherry worked as a cowhand, a chef, and is now a journalist and photographer based in Los Angeles. He has been nominated for the Pushcart and the Orison Award. Featured as a reader at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles and at Litquake in San Francisco, his work has appeared in Los Angeles Review of Books, Cathexis Northwest Press, Australia's Cordite Poetry Review, The Louisiana Review, and the recent pandemic collection, Hello Goodbye Apocalypse.