Tightrope Walker

A toe balanced on a wire as thin as reality, a fine veneer

set over something we can’t bear to imagine

The universe swirls

around, unknowing and uncaring, infinite

and

Full of stars

coming into being and blazing victorious light

Dark patches cold, empty

creating their own matter out of the absence of all else

the span of it trailing from one unknowable edge to the next

Within, galaxies, spears of light within dark

Planets, huge and ponderous, hurtling around stars

full of beings lasting only a second and

blurring from one moment to the next

The mirror expanse of the seas and the earthy colors of the forest

steel and concrete, wind in hair and breath in lungs

the shocking taste of copper and exhaust fumes

Life inhaling shakily

the entire cosmos trembles, lurches on the wire

steps forward, one foot delicately in front of the other

keeps going, a tremendous effort, a modern Hercules

The way is precarious

but the stars have existed for so long

that they cannot help but stabilize

Perhaps there is a shard that

cannot imagine

doing anything but reaching into a spine and holding tight

keeping balanced on the wire

steps down at the end

and steadies.