Journey

I saw a camel caravan
Careen across the sky.
It started in a chimney stack
And travelled proud on high.

Its journey was not charted,
Tho' no one called it back.
No sound advice was offered
About the skyward track.

I watched in studied silence
As with wobbly legs it ventured on,
'Til it was swallowed by a cloud--
And the camel caravan was gone.

Did it reach the sun's bright promise
Or stumble in the sand
Of a place of force, forbidding,
That it could not understand?

Why did it spiral up that day
And leave its warm abode?
The answer is, it had to.
Though it knew not where to go.

With a sweep of understanding
As to why the caravan did soar,
The chimney stack stands ready
To send another to explore.
Berdine Cloud Dent