In The Sky

I saw a face in the sky.

I didn’t take a picture with my phone or feel a need to point it out to anyone,in particular.

I just stared at it.

It just stared at me;
……like strangers do…

I took a couple of steps, stopped, looked at my feet, ran my fingers thru my hair and looked up again.

I saw a face in the sky.

I watched it.

It watched me.

I looked left, I looked right

I looked down, again and blinked my eyes.

I took a slow breath and looked up…

“Why’re you staring at me?” asked the face in the sky.

“Why’re you staring at me?” I counter- asked….

“I’m not staring at you, I was just….looking at….you know…all the people” said the face.

“I can tell when someone is staring at me” I said “and you” I pointed at the face “were staring at me”

The face shifted in the clouds

It looked left, it looked right… It looked down….took a slow breeze.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t realize I was staring”

“That’s ok” I said “staring is considered rude down here”

“People are always staring up at me” said the face. “Sometimes they think I’m God”

“People say that God lives in heaven, amongst the stars and sky” I said. “I guess it bears to reason that people would look up when they’re sad.”

Anywhere is better than down, as far as that goes.

The face in the sky looked troubled.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

The face grimaced…

“I suppose you’ve noticed that I am closer to heaven than you” it said.

“Yes, I noticed. That makes you sad?” says I.

The face in the sky looked left, looked right, looked up, then back down at me.

“No” it said “You have to go thru me to get to heaven”

“So…?” I said.

I felt…. weird, all of a sudden.

“I won’t let you pass…” said the cloud that looked like a face.

“Why not?!” I asked, perplexed and pissed.

“God doesn’t want you up here anymore” it said; looking left, then right.

I frowned…

“And why not?” I asked in a somewhat petulant tone.
“I’ve led a good life, I’ve been a good man”

“By your own standards…” said the face.

“I don’t understand” I said.

“Of course you don’t” the face said as a faceless cloud passed between us. “He doesn’t really trust you people, anymore”

Can’t blame him, I thought.

“Tell him about the rain” said a voice from another cloud.

“Rain?” I queried “What about the rain?”

“Rain are souls that never make it to heaven. It is judged souls that are cast out from the presence of God and spread upon the face of the earth. You know…tears in heaven.”

Everybody loves Clapton….

I paried…

“There is no redemption then, there is no forgiveness nor merciful father as we have been told? ” I asked, chagrined and increasingly distraught.

The face in the sky looked left, looked right; then it looked up, then back down at me….

It whispered…

“Father really, really likes flowers”