The Nature of Clouds

You cannot change the nature of clouds :

Wet, and dark, and cold.

You must change the nature of yourself

To walk in the swamps of sky.

You cannot draw light

Out of the pearl window of storm –

Inset in the gray-white-gray

Evening between rains.

It is your own lantern

That brings fire

To the earth below.

 2/20/2000

Zahra bint al-Qalam