Art

Between

I will tell her While my ears still ring With those arhythmic screeches That she cannot sing Her talking voice is cream and peaches But pitched? I cannot stand the thing I will tell her

I won’t tell her While she sings, she smiles And that makes me grin And bear it: She takes her soul and bears it, while To shoot the Mockingbird’s a sin Hers is more the squawking style I won’t tell her

I listen and my brain is split My eyes fixed firmly to the clock I need to run and yet I sit Between the hard place and the rock

Dammed

I am dammed so crops can grow So they can reap what they can sow It is rot that feeds the land Smell the flowers; I am dammed.

I am dammed by wall of stone Yet years ago my power alone Turned stone to pebble, pebble to sand They built too high, and I am dammed

Past the world, I used to run: To feel the wind, to feel the sun. Before the wall, still I stand I used to run, but I am dammed

It is strange, this damming curse, I do not change, but I feel worse. I’d climb it, but I’ve no hands. This wall is mine, and I am dammed.

What shape was I, before the wall? Did I flow? Did I fall? So neat and clean, and all to plan: I am the wall; I am the dam.

Caving

Looking up the rope, tautly umbillicalling me to the darkness of the cave above, I caught myself mentally checking off the safety redundancies for what must've been the third or fourth time since I started the descent: the harness, the knots, the helmet, the rope, the radio, the knife, the proximity alarm, the anchor I'd selected, the backup, and finally Tim; my partner on this mission. As if on cue, his voice, quietened by distance, came from above: "What's the hold up?" "Nothing! I was just making sure we'd not misread the depth. I reckon I'm about halfway down now. Everything's ok, no need to worry." I realised I was blabbering now, as I often did when talking to Tim. Something about him set me on edge. Or maybe… "It's fine. I'm fine. We can keep going. I'm starting again now." I descended another 10 or so feet. "Tim?" A pause. Then the rope started shaking, violently.