13 Ways of Looking at a Roller Coaster

Worry is like a roller coaster ride that you think will take you somewhere, but it never does.
~Shannon L. Alder

Roller Coaster at Sea World, Surfers Paradise, Australia.
Photo by Marc Dalmulder.

Sharing another summer swap poem today. It makes my day to get a poem from a friend! And Heidi packaged hers so cleverly...

Tube o' poem. Thank you, Heidi!

13 Ways of Looking at a Roller Coaster
by Heidi Mordhorst
after Wallace Stevens

I
Among twenty showy amusements,
The only moving thing
Was the nose of the roller coaster.

II
I was of three stomachs,
Like a mouth
In which there are three roller coasters.

III
The roller coaster whirled in the summer winds.
It was a small part of the drama.

IV
A boy and a girl
Are one.
A boy and a girl and a roller coaster
Are one.

V
I do not know which to prefer,
The terror of anticipation
Or the terror of compulsion
The roller coaster cresting
Or just after.

VI
Popsicles filled the long line
With barbaric ice.
The shadow of the roller coaster
Crossed it, to and fro.
The mood
Traced in the shadow
An indecipherable scream.

VII.
O shorn boys of Highschool,
Why do you imagine golden coasters?
Do you not see how the silver coaster
Careens around the hands
Of the girls about you?

VIII
I know robust actions
And loose, inescapable rhythms;
But I know, too,
That the roller coaster is involved
In what I know.

IX
When the roller coaster flew out of sight,
It marked the edge
Of one of many ellipses.

X
At the sight of roller coasters
Flying in a neon light,
Even the rowds of ecstasy
Would cry out harply.

XI
He rode over Kings’ Dominion
In a fiberglass trap.
Once, a fear pierced him,
In that he mistook
The shadow of his peloton
For roller coasters.

XII
The tarmac is melting.
The roller coaster must be climbing.

XIII
It was afternoon all morning.
It was shining
And it was going to shine.
The roller coaster sat
In the steely loops.

***************

Isn't it wonderful? You can find the Poetry Friday round-up at Write Time.