Clouds, the Original Moving Pictures

Clouds, the Original Moving Pictures ©

By

Michael Casey

Well it’s 18^th August 2021 now, if you were counting the days since a full story story, a © by Michael Casey one. It’s been a funny old time, Tinnitus  has been beating me up, and lack of sleep has been making me even more of a _ , you can insert a word of your choice where I left the space. While you think of one I’ll get some Cadburys from the fridge, so at least I’ll be sucking on something nice, you can reach for the beer or boyfriend to kiss, instead of reading this.

So as I suck my chocolate you can read this, or get the parrot to read it aloud to you, as you sit on the loo. So, I was in the garden the other day, and Totoro our cat came out to play, hiding under my chair, beneath my big backside there is a total eclipse of the sun. Or some other song title, was it Heart who sung it years ago, anyway I fart and Totoro runs away over the garden fences to find somebody kinder to her.

I look up and watch the clouds in the blue blue sky, Garbo a Chinaman we used to know long ago, used to say the sky was so blue in UK. Mr Blue Sky by ELO no doubt was his favourite song, but then again I might be wrong, maybe Money Money Money by Abba, who knows, if he sees this he can send me a message, in a wine bottle. As for the clouds, they do tell stories. Maybe in Nepal as they read my stories they look up and say, that’s a fat cloud, as fat as Michael Casey, and another cloud is so silver, like his hair, and yet another cloud is like a feather, just like his pen. As they reach for their shades again, to hide the fact they are reading me. But maybe I’m wrong. Meanwhile in Iraq today somebody is reading me too, maybe an Arabic translation of one of my books, as they suck on their bubble shisha.

As we look up to the sky clouds pass by, fat ones, thin ones, shades of white and shades of black. Some with rain, some with not, or at other times just blue blue sky, with ELO playing in the background I got my copy in November 1977, and I have reason to remember it. Pregnant Ladies galore, and me being interviewed on tv talking about chips. And Pauline who wasn’t pregnant with everybody else, being pregnant later, so that child will be 44 now. I had no reason to look to the sky back then, just being in the gutter and looking at the stars, and on my dad’s 56^th Birthday too. That’s how I remember things. My dad I remember shaving in the kitchen sink, and saying something will turn up, and telling me to start saving for the Future though I thought I had none. My Eldest Brother whose Birthday it was the other day, saying Try Computers. So, I did, and you know the rest. Clouds come and Clouds go, you think you have no tomorrow, but Tomorrow will come. Just have faith, and believe your dad, and listen to your big brother even if it was only once. That once, led to 21 years employment in Computers, Market Research into Alcohol Sales, and me being born in the shadow of a Brewery. I was in the gutter but was able to look to the stars.

Now at that job I saw a lot of Dawn, no she wasn’t the local nudist, or company bike, to use a very bad old phrase. Dawn was in fact Dawn, the Dawn, as I did 14 years of Night Shifts. So, we used to down tools, or wake up depending on which naughty boys I was working with. We’d look out the window in central Birmingham and watch the darkness of the night be chased away by Dawn and her daylight. Black becoming Orange and early morning wisps of white cloud, like a cat sneaking in and chasing the dark away, and yes Totoro my cat just snuck in the study as I was talking to you. Hence my choice of words, and just like the bell on the cat, the early morning noise rises. I remember when I was in Shanghai the traffic began at 5am and you could see it from the hotel window. The porter there got a great tip, I told him through my translator family, I used to do his job. The mother in law also tipped him well, so for him it was Christmas, snow falling from the sky, though I doubt he was a Christian, but maybe a Michael Bolton fan.

The light and the dark in the sky is Magic, hey hey hey it’s Magic you know and not just for airline pilots. The clouds in the sky, the very sky itself is our picture show, our moving picture show, or flicks, and it does flicker especially when Thunder and Lightning strikes. I was in Normand once at a very nice house, and Michel said tutoyer avec moi, and yes I’ve spelt that wrong. At school we leant Vous, so I did not know the Tu variants. Just as in Korean I know from my Kdramas that  Honorifics are most important.  Though if I do meet any Koreans face to face, they’ll get none of it, you me and you, and no words blocking our  progress.

Back to the Normandy storm, you could feel the Electricity in the air, and as we were in the countryside, the light show was fantastic, or even formidable. So, the sky was God’s canvas and he drew across it with thunderbolts and rumbles, even louder than my stomach when I am hungry. Maybe Jean Michel Jarre was plugged in somewhere and doing a show over the horizon. As for the lightning bolts, maybe Jackson Pollock drew his inspiration from them, big bold and dramatic is the key, so long as Ben got the key for the studio from Frank.

So, imagine you are a cave man, or me with no clothes on, not much difference, if you’ve seen me dancing naked in the rain with a bar of carbolic soap, when the water heater was bust. Ok, we all do it in my neighbour, we can’t get a good tv signal, so this is our version of David Attenborough, Naked Bathing. It breaks down barriers, but Penny from next door always asks do I need anything ironed, but I reply there are no wrinkles on me. So, anyway the Sky is a Light show, it’s also a name of a band, I saw them at the Odean 30 years ago. My arm was in a sling, I had been ice-skating, yes really. I know a rhino on ice, I fractured my left elbow, it still twinges even now in cold weather. So, Sky played, and as I look around the cinema what did I see, everybody had something broken, almost like cripples’ night out.  

So, as we look to the Sky, with or without music, there is drama in the air, and brave birds fly through it, or planes leave skid marks in the sky, or just vapour trails. I do leave skid marks in the sky, as I’m afraid of flying. Though 2013 was my last holiday, and I doubt I’ll ever fly again, not unless I’m kidnapped by Kpop stars, thinking I’m an even bigger PSY. The food is nearly ready so I’m going to finish, but tomorrow if it’s dry lie on your back and look at the sky. See the moving pictures there and watch the patterns form and move away again. Look for a Rainbow too. The Sky was and is the Original Moving Picture Show, so look East and look West, look to the Heavens at Night. Everything is still the same since cave men times. Enjoy the free show, and if you look careful on the very event horizon, you may see a naked man and his carbolic, that’ll be  me, do you want to tutoyer with me? Une tres belle fess .

I’M STILL A LITTLE FLOWER IN NEED OF WATER, HAPPY I WAS ABLE TO WRITE TODAY, PAIN STAYED AWAY

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