Partly Cloudy Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Table of Contents

  Dedication

  Copyright

  A Girl's Tears, Her Songs

  On the Side of a Bike Path

  Not Yet

  Composition

  Burrs & Thistles

  Facts of Life

  I Saw What You Did

  Rough Hands

  Stars

  Natural Talent

  Obsession

  Don't You See

  Signs

  Strategy

  Exaggeration

  Meaning What?

  Consequence

  Full Price

  Jealousy

  Black Books

  Barriers

  Testing You

  The Big Chill

  First Kiss

  Anonymous Tug

  Paper Boat

  Fake Love

  The Invisible Girl

  Neighborhood

  Horses

  Playing Football

  Lazy Cupid

  For the Love of Dogs

  Little Puppy

  Pears

  Bossy Girl

  When I Lost You

  Time with You

  Sparks

  Home Alone, and Liking It

  A Boy’s Body, His Words

  Mirror

  The Second Button

  Open House

  Vegan for Your Love

  A Long Weekend Without You

  So Much Alike

  Fall Dance

  Country Music

  Beautiful Trouble

  Busted

  Tree Bark

  Simple Me

  A Certain Weakness

  The Koi at the Museum Pond

  The Birds and the Bees

  Boy Artist

  Rumors

  Faces

  Rationale

  A Lesson for Us

  Eternal Love

  Danger

  Time

  Pomegranate as My Heart

  Driftwood

  Getting to Know You

  Imagination

  A View of Heaven

  Forest of Boulders

  Leaving the Bookstore

  Love Medicine

  Spreading Love

  Mystery

  Hard Work

  Iowa Evening

  Playing Our Parts

  Out in Nature

  An Act of Kindness

  About the Author

  To Isabel Schon

  It’s 40–Love, and your serve

  Copyright © 2009 by Gary Soto

  All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Graphia, an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Originally published in hardcover in the United States by Harcourt Children's Books, an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 2009.

  Graphia and the Graphia logo are trademarks of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

  For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 215 Park Avenue South, New York, New York 10003.

  www.hmhbooks.com

  Test set in Berling FT Std

  Designed by Linda Lockowitz

  The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows:

  Soto, Gary

  Partly cloudy: poems of love and longing/Gary Soto.

  p. cm.

  1. Teenagers—Poetry. 2. First loves—Poetry. 3. Love poetry, American. 4. Young adult poetry, American. I. Title.

  PS3569.O72P37 2009

  811'. 54—dc22

  2008022267

  ISBN: 978-0-15-206301-6 hardcover

  ISBN: 978-0-547-57737-1 paperback

  Manufactured in the United States of America

  DOC 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  4500335135

  A Girl's Tears, Her Songs

  On the Side of a Bike Path

  What was our future? I turned over

  Your hand and studied your palm.

  I noted two lines, one short, the other long.

  I looked at mine—three lines,

  One filled with sweat from our three-mile ride.

  I wondered to myself, Why three?

  Then I knew—you were the first

  To lie with me on a blanket,

  And two others would follow,

  Neither as beautiful.

  As you stood up,

  Shaking grass from your hair,

  I gripped your hand—pinched it, really.

  Months from now you will not be mine.

  Not Yet

  The weakest petals

  Blow from the flowering tree,

  And I think of myself

  As a part of that tree,

  My petals intact.

  Not yet, I tell you,

  We're young, just

  Coming into bloom,

  Our roots sinking

  Daily into the earth.

  Not yet, I tell you,

  I a small tree,

  You a taller, bending

  Tree. The sun

  Will roll over us,

  And if a cloud

  Of worry throws lightning,

  Let's remember our fear.

  Composition

  Cold day, cold without you,

  Ice hanging from the eaves like teeth

  And the sun riding out of town before I changed

  Out of my pajamas. To get warm, I opened a can

  Of alphabet soup, got it boiling,

  And poured it into a bowl. The bowl was warm

  As your hand. I liked that, steam curling

  As I carefully carried it to the table.

  I drank from the lip of the bowl,

  And used a chopstick to form I love you

  From the tangle of floating letters.

  I drank that sentence and began to glow.

  Burrs & Thistles

  What gifts do you bring me?

  I see you walking

  Across the baseball diamond,

  A stick like a sword

  Whacking at the tall grass.

  The tips of your shoes

  Will be green

  As our love is green,

  And your hair is the color

  Of wheat. You see me,

  And I wave.

  You drop your stick

  And run to me

  Like Mercury,

  Burrs, thistles, flakes

  Of grass hooking

  On your pant cuffs.

  Later, at our favorite

  Place at the river,

  I'll whisper, “Do you love me?”

  And think how other

  Girls want to grab

  You like those burrs

  And thistles. Jealous,

  I'll pluck every one of them

  And flick them into the wind...

  Facts of Life

  The bee will touch the flower,

  And the flower will not

  Complain. The weight

  Of the bee is like a teaspoon

  Of honey, and its wings

  Transparent as the boy in fifth period—

  He likes me, a bee hovering

  Above as we share a microscope.

  Am I his flower? We almost touch shoulders

  When we bend to look

  At the slide. We laugh.

  I'm then stung—he leaves

  My side and hovers over

  A hippie girl named Sunflower.

  In spring, boys don't last.

  I Saw What You Did

  You plunged your giant hand

  Into your pocket

  For dimes and nickels.

  Some pennies rolled

  Into
the server's hand

  At McDonald's,

  The one place we can afford.

  I heard you stutter,

  “Chocolate, no, I mean—strawberry,”

  My favorite flavor.

  With two straws, we left

  To sit on a bench—

  Two pigeons stared at us.

  When we lowered our faces

  Toward that rosy milk shake,

  Our eyes locked on each other,

  And as we bumped heads,

  Both of us almost

  Choked from giggling.

  I saw what you did—

  You pretended to drink

  From the straw.

  You let me have most

  Of the milk shake.

  That was nice.

  You called me sweet,

  Strawberry sweet.

  Rough Hands

  Lotion is a slippery essence

  Applied on a winter day

  When an icy wind sings through the bare trees.

  But I prefer my hands rough.

  This way, when I hold yours,

  You won't slip away.

  Stars

  I was spooked by a possum, the crunch of leaves,

  Something going hoot, hoot in a tree.

  I jumped when a fish jumped in the creek—

  How you laughed your beautiful laugh.

  You were guiding me along that creek

  And finally up a hill to view the stars

  Set deep against the black, black sky.

  You held my hand. You said,

  “You're my star.” Here, I laughed.

  Was this some line? You kissed me,

  Then said the stars were really dead

  But their light was moving earthward

  And influencing everything from the seas

  To our love. Yes, you used the word love.

  I pulled my hair back.

  You pressed your body against mine.

  No longer scared of possums, the rustling leaves,

  Or the sounds in the trees,

  I was happy there was something called stars.

  Natural Talent

  You brought out a can of chicken noodle soup

  And set its contents in a pot

  Over the stove's collar of blue flames.

  “Wow,” I said, “you can cook.”

  The refrigerator's bulb shone on your handsome face

  When you brought out a block of cheese—

  You deftly cut little squares

  And placed them onto saltines.

  “Where did you learn all this?” I asked,

  And you shrugged your shoulders.

  I even liked how you turned on the kitchen faucet

  With your elbow—you had to keep

  Your fingers clean—and whittled little pieces

  Of salami. We ate looking at each other,

  Me so obviously in love. I asked, “Do you iron?”

  You nodded—god, you have shiny hair!

  After we ate, you asked me to take...

  To take off my blouse! “Slow down,” I said,

  Hands on my hips. Then I understood.

  You gave me a sweatshirt to wear

  While you sewed on my loose fourth button.

  Where did you learn this,

  Multitasking lover boy of mine?

  Obsession

  Three photos of you on the front of my binder,

  Two inside when I flip it open.

  Downloaded photos of you on my bedroom wall,

  In a locket my cat paws jealously,

  And in my diary I lock with a key.

  I'm obsessed with you. This spring wherever

  I turn I see you, even in the faces

  Of cumulus clouds I could pinch like a cheek.

  I had my eyes checked last week

  And the optometrist with beady eyes said,

  “A curious case. Young lady, there's a picture

  Of a boy at the back of your retinas.”

  Don't You See

  If only you would turn

  And see me. I think I'm nice,

  And you're nice, too.

  Does that mean we're compatible?

  And look! We go to the same

  School, at the same hour,

  And under the same sun.

  The blossoms are fluttering

  From the fruitless cherry tree.

  But is this fruitless? I'm flying

  In and out of your shadow,

  Stepping up steps,

  Down steps, slowing

  For water at the drinking fountain,

  And bending over to tie my shoe.

  If only you would turn

  And see me

  Seeing you.

  Signs

  At the beginning of baseball season,

  You spoke of the distance between like and love.

  This made me bite my lower lip in worry.

  I think you were telling me something—

  Are you done with me? Is your life all baseball?

  Or maybe there's another girl.

  I've seen your eyes slide away from me

  And look at others. Okay, I'm jealous.

  Now, from the bleachers, I watch each thing

  You do—touching your cap,

  Digging dirt from your cleats—and think

  You're telling me something,

  Like the third-base coach

  Touching his nose and mouth.

  Is that a sign for you to run?

  Strategy

  I went to class, sat in a chair

  That wobbled and rocked. Got up

  And changed seats.

  I got up again, and again.

  That's how I happened

  To sit next to you.

  Exaggeration

  I knew you were in love.

  At the restaurant you raced to get the door,

  And while the sign said PULL,

  You pushed, the heels of your shoes

  Losing traction. People gathered around us,

  Confused, as you begged, “No, no, let me!”

  But you pushed instead of pulled.

  Sweat glistened on your upper lip

  And your face—I can still see it—was red.

  You stopped. You informed the crowd, “It's stuck.”

  When a little old lady stepped up to open the door,

  Everyone rudely rushed in front of us—

  We had to wait twenty minutes for a table.

  Okay, I exaggerate. But not when I say

  I knew you were in love with me,

  And I with you, the boy pushing ahead in life.

  Meaning What?

  When I heard the phrase

  I long for you,

  I first thought it was bad grammar

  And then began to think,

  No, it's something like long book,

  Long movie, long drive to look

  At the mountains or the sea,

  Or it's Dad examining

  Every dinosaur bone and dinosaur egg

  At the Natural History Museum—

  Now that's long! But when I turned

  Thirteen, I finally understood,

  And so did my classmate Jennifer Lee,

  Her pretty face red for Brandon.

  I asked, “How do you say 'I long for you'

  In Mandarin?” and she said, "Wo xi huan ni."

  I really didn't understand what she was saying,

  But now I know what she meant.

  Consequence

  When a stone bridge fails,

  You can rebuild it with your hands.

  With love, when it falls,

  The rocks shoot sparks. Gossips

  Gather at the river's edge,

  Skipping stones across the water,

  Asking intently, “Who brought it down?”

  Full Price

  We missed the half-price

  Matinee. But that was okay.

  We walked around a
nd did math

  In our heads, both of us poor

  But geniuses for figures.

  Then you helped a man

  Push a car barely alive

  On the fumes of precious gas.

  When the man tried to press

  Ten dollars into your palm,

  You said, “No, sir, no, we're fine.”

  We returned to the theater

  And looked up at the marquee—

  The movie was called Totally and Forever.

  You held my hand

  As you would have in the theater,

  And under the halo of lights

  I explained the plot.

  Jealousy

  In the hallway, I pass your ex-girlfriend,

  Tall as me, brown hair and eyes like me,

  And have to think, What's the difference?

  I think of her in your arms,

  And the cute things you said into her ear.

  What did you tell her? What secrets?

  When I turn to spy on her, I see she also turned—

  Tall as me, brown hair and eyes like me,

  And both of us baring our teeth.

  Black Books

  Each time I get a boyfriend,

  I buy a black book and promise myself

  To take notes. He's nice,

  He's not nice. He buys me a soda,

  He takes it back and drinks it all!

  His grilled teeth shine like a lie.

  He turns his pockets inside out—

  “I'm poor,” he claims,

  And my ten dollars flies from my hand

  To his. “We need gas money,” he says,

  But why am I always on the sidewalk

  Waving good-bye?

  Will I ever find the right boy?