prologue

i was standing on the edge of the atmosphere
when i saw it


it was like nothing i'd ever seen
and everything i'd ever dreamed
(the dreams you dream in the deep dark)
and it passed me by
and it caught my
breath
stole it up in its trailing tails
till my legs grew weak
and my useless feet
conspired to renounce their post


oh they followed my gaze
and they spied but a haze
unimpressive and surely without
any merit or meaning
...
and in any case they were all caught up
in the earth's underbrush
and the sight of my stance
(which appeared in a glance
to be perilous if not entirely fatal)
made their otherwise dull visages
twist into dreadful grimaces

.and here is where i learned
that hilarity and tragedy are lovers.

oh they cringed and they moaned
and they offered me up
glass bottles of air
in their helpful little hands
because they felt sad my breath had been taken away
and pretty as they were
all colored and filled
with the stuff of life
all trapped inside them...

i knew in the deep
in the deep
in the dark
that it hadn't been
my breath

but my heart





to be continued * * *