ditch.
by Matthew Welde
that's all you wanted to be
clay way out in space
copper canyon
a little place to hide away
a spoken sign that makes decent memories on ocean fictions
told by the tallest ghost and respected by the ancestors of embrace
but the nearing of the end pulls you closer to that sad man throwing towels
so exit zero to push the boat through the river and eventually out to sea
but don't be afraid
there's no guns out here just whales and sharks with teeth like a bear trap
did you plan to be a land-grazing creature forever?
without returning?
are you still dry?
will you get wet without diving into madness?
lay on the sky and look at yourself
you keep going by
going by the door
if you're a lock then turn over
find the key
follow the angel radiant enough to show itself
and stay alert
one who casts no spell of their own is subject to the curse of another
there is a key
find it
notice the compass; spinning like a dreidel
back through the tradition of sapiens back through a mustard seed
where words like these sprang up first
the vehicle
the mustard seed
the car that drove into a ditch and the passengers who survived and created life in a ditch
get me out of this ditch!
i want to live!
i want to live above ground where tongues are extinct
and nature's cruel hand shows no bias
and creates no illusion
where the heart must choose to be like a heart or like a stone
and if the heart is like a stone it is still
and if the heart is like a heart it is moved by the magic of discipline
and carries on inward until it explodes onto the banks with a harmonica
ecstatic
it's toes still in the estuary
blowing like a storm into a lightbulb
shedding light on the ditch and then filling that fucker in
shattering the last bullet with a tiny idea
just a little, tiny idea that finds a home in your heart
the holy reverberation
the discarding of conformity and its subtle game lost eternally with the other afraid
controllers of the grabbable, the gullible, the confused, the lonely, the painful, the wrongfully
mistaken and unlucky forgetful travelers who come here to be fooled over and over again
until they no longer can be fooled and get out of that damned ditch
these hands were made for making
and this heart was made to love
these eyes eyes were made for seeing
that this mind is from above