The Line

 

 

 

I.
The girl gracefully glides across the balance beam,
One foot in front of the other.
Pure Ivory dress fluttering lightly in the cool breeze.
She dances the thin line between the water and the sky.

Eyes open, always looking up.
The River Styx rages on underneath,
Unnoticed by neglected naïve notions.

 

II.

Soft satin slippers slip.
The Man In Black grips her ankles,
“Call me June,” she sighs, eyes wide shut.
She sighs again;
And again.
--Blood-Stained Ivory--
No longer closed wide open eyes see
Black not quite so Black.
A Darke shade of Blue,
Black enough to even fool
The cleverest of Band Directors.
“Blue isn’t so very strange from black”
She sighs thrice,
Filling lungs with toxic smoke,
Closing her illusion clouded eyes.

 

III.
Jolene’s a-callin’.

(Don’t let me let you go)
Air deprived lungs echoed out in empty silence
Jolene’s a-callin’.

The Man in Blue-Black
Takes his auburn-haired beauty
And rides off into the river,
Clutching the Leviathan’s back.
Even at a distance

The girl’s saline saturated eyes saw
That Blue was not so very different from Black at all.
 

 

 

IV.

Styx stained stain slippers find the beam
Half as thick as before.
Teeter-totter; Teeter-totter; Teeter-Totter.
Head slightly swaying,
Twice as heavy as her heart.
Malicious mesmerizing memories meddling.
Cigarettes are burning.
The needle calls.
 
A forest of funhouse mirrors
Distortion or Clarity?
Mere cellophane is all I am.
 

 

 

V.
Apathetic Atrophy.
Promised Salvation;
Cold stares ripping the girl apart
“You do not belong here.”
Head and Heart at war with each other and the world.
“To Hell for your thoughts!”

--No. Only Limbo, said Virgil--
Her free will tells her otherwise.

 

 

VI.

Off in the distance,
The electrical air buzzed;
Kids and kites catch her eyes.
"There is freedom," a voice whispers.
"I believe you."
The girl gets up and
Dances gracefully along the thicker thin line.
Looking up,
A light breeze rustles the blood-stained dress,
The stars always present
Beckoning her onward.
Diamonds in her eyes;
Diamond studded slippery slippers;
Shine.