Leaps
Free fall. A star
Flashing through the universe.
Arms spread to angel wings,
The ripcord at the last possible moment,
Then floating like an autumn leaf.
Or that umbilical cord,
Off a cliff headfirst the way a hawk
Dives for its prey. The bounce to signal
The end of adventure.
Surge of adrenalin. Veins rivering
In flood. Heart as full as love
Could measure. Every muscle timed
To perfection in the pit
Of the belly where cells muster.
Man on a bridge
Nervously pacing before swinging
A leg over the rail. Balancing precariously
As if considering. What thoughts
Race as he plummets knowing
No halo of salvation can open
Above him like a bright flower,
No stretch of imagination
To seize his ankles and hold him.
More Bad News
Here comes the Andromeda Galaxy
Destined to smash the Milky Way
In four billion years. One more thing
To worry about along with taxes,
Unemployment, college tuition, decline
Of the liberal arts, bankruptcy of Medicare,
Pension plans, Social Security, moral
Integrity, faith and love.
We lie awake in our white beds
Of starfall counting the disasters
About to befall generations
Still quivering in our cells. However,NASA
Predicts a merger rather than pure devastation:
Milkomeda, an enormous cow
Of a daughter chained to rock
But rescued by Perseus. So there’s always hope
That earth may be spared, though by then our sun
Is a cauldron filled with our ashes. Another thing
To trouble about as the skies pale
Behind the blinds.
by Joan Colby
Joan Colby is an award-wining writer who has been widely published in journals including Poetry, Atlanta Review, GSU Review, Portland Review, South Dakota Review, The Spoon River Poetry Review, New York Quarterly, the new renaissance, Grand Street, Epoch, Mid-American Poetry Review, Prairie Schooner, Kansas Quarterly, The Hollins Critic, Minnesota Review, Western Humanities Review, College English, Another Chicago Magazine and others.
