Clouds Over the Capitol

White marble monuments
dream themselves eternal
while clouds drift overhead
laughing at permanence

See how power builds
in granite and steel
while wild geese ignore
imaginary borders

A tower crumbles faster
than a tree sheds its leaves
Nature writes amendments
in wind and water

Through marble halls
bureaucrats shuffle papers
while outside, sparrows
rewrite the constitution

The flag stands stiff
in manufactured wind
but clouds above it
flow like revolution

Committees debate
the shape of rain
while thunderstorms
ignore their motions

In chambers of power
they craft laws of stone
not seeing how sand
was stone before

Watch the cloud-shadow
race across steps
where emperors once stood
now smooth with weather

Security cameras
track everything
except the slow drift
of cosmic democracy