author’s note:
Many years ago, I got hold of something too hot to handle. So instinctively, I threw it back down. Or else, it slipped through my hands. Whatever the case, I lost it.
I’ve spend the intervening time trying to get it back.
SHOCK
Looking over at a roof top
I saw
a string of electric lights--
dead at the noon hour.
So I snuck back at midnight,
just to see how the bulbs
might perform
in the dark.
One--only one--burned, but even that one
blinked
on and off--
uncertain of its decision.
All the other lights
were dead planets.
However,
I believed that a simple twist
could make those glass orbs surprise
in an instantaneous blaze.
So I climbed over a wall and up
a tree, then shimmied along
a limb until
I reached that rooftop
and the spiraling string of lights
strung over the roof’s spine.
I wasted no time, but
put a burglar’s glove
over my hand, then, with
heroic anticipation,
eased the one blinking bulb
deeper into its socket.
For one nanosecond, I felt the satisfaction of
securing that bulb--felt pleasure--for one nanocsecond--
then a full dragon charge ripped
up my arm,
danced my legs, jagged my brain, pumped my stomach--
E-lec-tricity--
like a god in its
fervor and severity--
gripped my entire frame,
shook my rationality
into watery jelly.
A moment later--after an eternity which
I will reference in the afterlife--
I blew from the roof like a crisp burnt leaf--
though I’m actually a golden loaf
whose gold is still hidden
under the opaque flaking crust.
As I dropped,
my thoughts were those a ragdoll
might think
as it drifts down through
a bottomless pit.
I had only one concern--
to locate my heart, my heart--
which my mirror eye soon found
reflected in the moon.
If asked for an excuse,
I would say that some special force--
within--
had guided my mind
to that fool’s errand,
had guided me to that string
and its electrical short--
I’m still looking
for that gold--
still flaking off
that burnt crust.
© 2006, Michael R. Patton
dream steps blog
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artwork for poetry blog
email: michaelpatton@lycos.com
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