Clouds Over Aberdeen Maryland

The puffy white shapes move eastward steadily

toward the ball park beneath the summer sun and the sky's blue

their bottoms grayed as if dirtied by what they pass above.

No store, no school, no church, no house

no space however named, built or furnished

snags and holds a single one.

The clouds are travelers passing without pause

unimpressed with the sign that calls this sleepy town

America's City.

Nearby, on a highway as stark

and bare as bone, the careering cars

speed by like a shoal of salmon in a fish ladder.