Monday, October 19, 2009

Jumping Ship

Open your eyes
Wake up chained to train tracks
Over a nameless river
With blurred murky banks
Encased in a steel car
Designed to hurtle you
To where you should be

Your seat is surgically clean
A stranger on the intercom says
It’s carrying you back to the city you once called home
(Remember to be grateful)

The water below makes a show of behaving
Glint, flow, glisten, reflect
Hide all that lies below the surface
With a smooth sheet of impossible blue

Your mother calls to make sure you’ve boarded
Make sure you’ve followed instruction
Her voice pounds a cadence
Count your change, count your blessings
(Remember to be grateful)

Now the water beckons
Every motionless inch of the vast entity
Begs for your body
To send ripples tearing
Through its monotony
‘Aren’t you tired of looking down upon freedom
From your platform pedestal?’

Your father sends a message
Imploring you to look at the trees
Note the season’s beauty goldorangered
(Remember to be grateful)

The water feels crisp
Enveloping your weight
This cold welcome still warmer than home
Embodying your vacillation
Swaying back and forth
It can’t guarantee a destination
Or estimate a time of arrival
But from where you’re floating
Belly to the sky
You’ve never been more grateful
So open your eyes
You’ve never felt more real

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