The Song the Cloud's Sing - Cody Winger

I have always followed the clouds

In school they tell you to follow your dreams
But most children don’t exactly dream of being lawyers
People usually pick up that you can’t actually be Superman
So I follow the clouds

In my early teenage years
My nose picked up the scent of rain
At a Lars Frederiksen and the Bastards show
The loud fast music pummeled my brain like the mosh pit did my body
I found myself loving bruises

So I fashioned a battle shield
Made of a sleeveless denim jacket
Patches and studs
Started reading about anarchy
Fascism
Active disobedience

Thought it would be a good idea
To put porno in the school books
To forcefully enlighten the nerdy Mormon kids who hung out in the library

Shaved my hair into a mohawk
Spiked it up daily
Wore it proudly
Like it was wedding ring
A birth right
A statement to the world

Like fuck the system
No matter what we have each other and our anger
That will never change

We built up unbreakable fists on the insides of our eardrums
That beat back the pressures of adolescence
We were young and punk rock

Did things to piss off security guards just so they would chase us
Vandalized red neck’s cars for being ignorant
Refused to stand for the pledge of allegiance at school
Because America sucked and we weren’t exactly sure why

We just knew that at the show
When the music fired everyone up
Like the guitarist’s fingers were Mount Olympus
And Zeus stood atop their finger tips
Shooting lightning bolts like shrapnel
Into the crowd

Nothing else mattered

The day I shaved my mohawk
Was the day I stopped following the clouds
It’s hard to get a job
When people call you freak for being who you are

Have you ever heard your identity fall betrayed to the bathroom floor?

It sounds like this:

You are now obedient
You are now permitted
We can now acknowledge your personality
To be a word spelled with person

In my early adult life
My nose picked up the scent of rain at a poetry reading
The smell so foreign I almost didn’t recognize it
Bringing back fond memories of bruises
The poetry pummeling my brain like the performances did my body
I found myself loving metaphor

So I fashioned a battle shield
Made of pens and paper

Found that after a reading
The sun shone a bit brighter
Things got a little easier
Life seemed a whole lot better

Starting reading about revolution
Governments
Effective activism

Thought it was a good idea
To read poetry with profanity in it
To forcefully enlighten the nerdy scene kids who hung out at the coffee shop

Got laid off from my job and hit the road
Starting reading the brail birthed from the earth
Like every bump on the asphalt is a new letter
I have pieced together the word freedom
Super glued it on the cover page of my long and unfinished journey
Met people who shared the same conscious understanding
That we are actively disobedient shooting stars
In a sky that chooses complacency

Like fuck the system
No matter what we have each other and our voice
That will never change

The day I hit the road
Was the day I started following the clouds again
It’s kind of hard to get a job
When people call you freak and you completely agree

Have you ever heard the song the clouds sing
On a seemingly endless road pointing directly to the center of the setting sun?

It sounds like this:

My boy

Welcome home