#919 - brink

 

13.vii.22

919

3.193

brink

a little teleology

 

a cliff has been coming towards me

 

I thought I had built very far for the view

now I see what it was for

 

no one is pushing me over

no one pushes a garden into the sea

and still…

cliff’s closer and closer

 

perhaps the ocean will rise up to save me?

a rapture? some trick of the light?

 

I think there must have been a slight incline

you wouldn’t have noticed it

till we started rolling

someone must have invented the wheel

 

and you know, it’s like we’re balancing now

a little wobble

and if that pup jumps off the plank…

these are only questions of time  

 

they talk about slow motion

 

what if we keep the windows wound up?

how long will we last that way?

what if? what if?

 

could one swim through?

and when you do…?

 

I notice the scenery passing again

how long have we been in this cartoon?

 

perhaps if we just built a bigger fire?

or a larger structure, with buttresses?

a different kind of prayer?

 

we might inform the authorities

there are services could be called

but at this stage

we’re already half way over, out of charge

dare not look

despite all efforts, it’s still a long way down

 

surely someone will save us?

(keep the happy ending in mind)

 

the rope bridge burns up

before me and after

makes this a kind of mid-brink

(characters held up by thin air)

 

you think it’s something abstract –

a pure geometry

 

it may have been the dark because of us

couldn’t see where

not for the smoke

not for the dust

 

who says we were warned?

 

surely someone is pushing us over

it’s a fancy fancy car

dashboard measures everything

 

but you never know

we might get a bounce at the bottom

none of this might matter at all

 

still best to take things seriously

get out the instruction manual

(probably on-line… and the people

who write that stuff!

not sure which planet they’re from)

 

never listen to the Cassandras

 

and that rubbish about the frogs

it’s not true!

the frogs jump out

like Pandora does

 

some kind of open air canary

is what’s now required

 

consider the brink width

duration

 

how long for the falling?

and life before our eyes

not just ours, everyone’s

 

what velocity may we yet reach?

 

only the breezes will hold us together

we could harness the wind

made by the fall

then all our problems

would be over

 

I cover my eyes

I bury my head

 

hear no, see no, etc

it’s just with this pale skin of mine

(forget your melanoma)

terminal, for sure

and the only one I have

 

it’s like the wall in the way of the drunk

like ‘stepped in front of my gun as it went off’

 

how are we all now cliff bottom broken

 

my house a tumbling thing

 

some other species dusts off

delicious

 

but it’s not yet not yet

we’re still on the brink

kind of a done deal though

and so

 

it’s over we go

please let’s just hold hands

 

you’re coming with me

aren’t you?