My Wife is a Cloud

Jonathan Ukah

My wife is a cloud where all my dreams condense;
I’m happy when her face is clear like drinking water;

Blue and white sky deepen my golden expectations
without the displeasures of superstition, waiting for the invisible,

When I can count my fevered blessings one by one
ladling layers of nasty smoke on the build-up to my pleasure

An afternoon cap of sunshine is like opening a Bible
of forgotten memories, delivering lampoons of despair;

Of rainbow moods, ecstasy and melancholy,
joy dwelling through the harpsichord of sadness;

I will not lament to see her in her worst form
though her best is a mixed bag of comfort and pain;

With these dark clouds soon tempting to take her out
as their best-resting port, their lair to plunge on me;

From where they strike at the delicate cord
keeping her heart away from the crows’ nest of eternity.

When the clouds clear, it is magic and nostalgic
to wait for the time she springs on me like spring sunshine,

Revisit her old self, the Archipelago of pure harmony,
and the old laughter that was the death of unrepentant Jezebel.

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Jonathan Ukah
Jonathan Ukah is the author of the chapbook, A is for Anfang. His poems are in The Pierian, Boomer Literary Magazine, Kingsman Quarterly and elsewhere. He won the Alexander Pope Poetry Award 2025 of The Pierian Literary Magazine. He has been twice nominated for the Pushcart Prize.