The Ride of Your Life
From The Carnival
Page 10
Petaluma 2007
Ferris’s Wheel
It was either too high
or the sky too low
that we lost the view of the people
who rose to its top
It was just too hard to see the crest of the sweep
The neck has to crane too far
The stars too bright below it
Some Olympian god eased his hand
and ceased the steer of the valve of circus light
My friends abandoned ship
dizzy and winded
moon walking from their seats
I told them that they were star children now
being that they were covered in their flour
and that the first thing they should do
when we return to the hotel
is pack their necessities
and wait for the star people to knock on their door
to take them away
It’s just a ride they said
Just the ride of your life
And indeed it was
But I think they’ve built it too high
For once you stare into the eyes of a Pegasus
there’s just no looking away
I could see it in them
That twinkle, that diamond shaped bead in their eye
that said on the morning
there would be nothing left of them
Just a ladder to the moon
hanging from their bedside
Untidy sheets and bourbon
