somewhere

she waded upstream, knee-deep in fast-moving water, swearing she remembered the river flowing the opposite direction on the map. shoes wet, pants wet, everything wet as she climbed up the rocks of rapids, between towering redwoods and boulders. the day went on forever, the endless day of summer, the longest and brightest.

water
fire

throbbing, shedding, opening,

raw

the desert

flesh and bone

she left on her bicycle, towards the mountains and the sea northward, away from the desert and the endless miles of red dirt. she left them in their tents, in the shade, waiting for dark. they cautioned her and she did not listen. sweat dripped down her forehead but she did not listen. later, in the jungle, in the lush green jungle, to the sound of macaws trading secrets, she looked up and tried to find the sun.

and a cloud moved in, and rained down, and she actually wished for an umbrella. she actually gave up and was soaking wet and at this point everything will start to mildew, turn black with little dots of mold reaching up and over and around on top of the bed covers, into the bags, through the clothes she washed by soaking in an old bucket overnight. mysteriously, water cures dampness and the heat relaxed her muscles and the chill left her bones.

the chill of the desert at night, the stars forever, the moon shadow of one large cactus blocking her way. the strange alien landscape, the trees with no leaves, the unmeasurable distance between rock, the sand, the desperation.

i'm on the edge

endless meadows
endless summer
an endless, warm twilight

then darkness

i'm on the edge
are you on the edge?

of the high dive
waiting for the ripples to fade
waiting for something to change

i'm on the edge

why

only something waiting now
plenty, in the pantry, sunlight,
snow

i know, you know, we know
she ran and ran and ran, into a large-mouthed cave, down into the earth. long passageways of dark and open caverns rich with precious metals. there was no bottom, nothing resembling some ending point at which to turn back, just continuous darkness and cool rock. sometimes something might tremble.

sometimes something might warm, might glow, a soft glow at first, floating upward, until it becomes red and hot and moves with great precision through the caverns, gathering speed toward the surface and exploding outward into fire.

so, what do you do?
do you keep looking for the bottom?
do you run from that building flame?
do you watch, enraptured, the exploding forth?