A Sky of Followers

In my sky,

I see many followers.

Some observing,

some learning,

some playing trampoline on the clouds.

One man is conducting

in a brown jacket,

while all other blue jacketed people

play violin, viola, oboe.

Another brown-jacketed woman

is teaching a class

of blue jacketed children.

Only one child’s jacket

is spotted with earthy tones.

They are let out to recess.

The young girl is the first out.

She jumps from the top cloud

poof

poof

poof

to the lowest

where she came close to the ground

on her Cumulus.

She lays on her tummy

and scoops at the bottom,

dragging the marshmallow

along the sturdy ground

to see the flowers.

Some children follow her

but only as far as they can go.

They aren’t able to touch the ground.

They can’t drag themselves along.

One boy gets low enough.

He grabs the girl’s ankle.

A boy above him holds his leg

and the girl above him pulls his.

The chestnut-spotted girl pulls all of them

steady, steady,

toward the vibrant colors.

A whole parade 

of clingy kids

floats it’s diagonal way

toward a grounded place.

The boy holding her ankle

sees dirt and daffodils.

Some dirt must’ve defied gravity

because his coat of navy

became speckled with bark brown.

But he wanted more.

He wanted hard instead of cloud,

Definite instead of wisp.

The splotches grew.

He touched the ground.

The boy was filled with something solid and dense...

Power.

Standing with the girl,

he wanted to help the kids down.

And he knew they would follow.









What is the symbolism behind the blue and brown jackets? What can you tell about the people wearing the blue jackets by that symbolism? What is the difference between the things that the jackets symbolize? Hint: The difference is hard vs. soft, sturdy and reliable vs. wispy and changing. Connect the leardership in the poem to the frase: "Whoever stands for nothing falls for everything" (or you can change the phrase to "whoever stands on nothing...").