Cloud Bank I’m skipping up to the Cloud Bank. Need to fill my pockets full of clouds. Withdraw a bundle of those shiny, light, and frothy ones ‒ to balance out, discount, the darkening miasmas of pandemic panic. That’s the world’s weather about now. Yes, I need a stash of those small, round, flotsam clouds that frolic on high summer skies. Frolicsome cirrocumulus. That’s the currency I need. Interest in such clouds is sky high. Floating rates. Stratospheric. And maybe, while I’m at it, I’ll stock up on some of those spectacular, lenticular clouds. The ones people mistake for spaceships. Maybe apply for a loan on the futures market? Definitely wouldn’t be a blue skies investment. Happy to go into hoc to get a stock of stratocumulus lenticularis duplicatus. Feed my hunger for wonder. Is there any need to worry there might be a run on the Cloud Bank in these uncertain times? Good news is ‒ there’s never a deficit. No shortfalls. Forecasters predict the Cloud Bank is always in surplus, can supply any level of demand. Orographic to cirrus. Stratus to altocumulus. Every cloud currency in plentiful supply. Your balance is always in the black and steel-blue. Flame and cream. Purple and green. Apricot and grey. And, of course, gold is standard, especially at sunrise. The Cloud Bank specialises in updrafts, never overdrafts. Simply cast your eyes up. Take in a draft. Draw down as much as you need from the endless lines of credit. Let’s skip up to the Cloud Bank. Use our inbuilt iris scanners to open up the vaults. Get ourselves a pocket-full, head-full, heart-full of clouds. Feed our hunger for wonder. by Gina Mercer
(Published first by Burrow, 2, Phillip & Gillian Hall (eds), Old Water-rat Publishing, Feb 2021.)
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