justwrite 17 february

you’re right that’s exactly the way to go the throw too high and when we kept our arms up all that time and we spun and kicked and lifted that pole higher and around again I felt light-headed and imagined myself sitting down saying no I’m fine thank you and I imagined pulling my jeans on over and stumbling out unreasonably with sneakers carrying my boots to the bus and the fuss no one would make because this is how I do it’s fine and true until it’s not and I drop but this time the air cleared the cold-giving door closed and we went about our business as if nothing ever happened because it didn’t I’m fine I said and then I was also on the wall this map and outside the dark and tomorrow tomorrow there is no pace to creep by on and it’s not petty to think about allusions we are the truth we week we are our own health to toast to and when the most few become the least many then too shall we wonder about our language skills how paying no bills will set us free and in this economy she says and she shakes her head for emphasis for sympathy from the room yes but have you seen the paper he asks and shakes his head although it’s unclear whether and why there and to whom and for what purpose this story is inserting itself at this juncture just a puncture wound but you ought to keep it in place until the doctor can have a look it’s a book and a prayer and a jump and a dare although the sockets and the bottled pockets are all wadded up with chewing gum anticipation the frustration of getting excited for no reason and then telling yourself all about it when there’s no doubt it’s better to tell someone else some time it’s better to send someone that thin dime to spend that word in absurd profit-making pursuits in cahoots with the tin man and other characters we despair we create villains instead of heroes in our exercise books and we pluralize crooks into infamy we’re getting an apartment she’s getting her hair redone he’s having some work replaced in there it’s sort of like an operation but without trepidation we signed the get-well card in advance why chance it why grant such a costly operation wings when it’s clear the singing has its own words to note and when it’s certain that dancing knows its own feet by rote and if you were afraid I could only end in some sort of certainty or rhyme then some times out of ten you’ll be wrong and I’ll be off-balance and there’s a chance this could be that time