The Rag Blog: The Hard Human Surface

23 June 2008

The Hard Human Surface

I'm doing a brave pushup
near the middle of the road
with my back legs paralyzed
and folded under me helplessly
under my newly crushing weight
as I hold my head up high
looking for danger though
unable to move out the way
of the next car already
rapidly approaching

I'm stunned and shocked
and surprisingly calm
after all what can I do
I always do my best
I'm very careful as a rule
and run so very fast that
no others ever catch me
running up and down trees
looking just a blur speeding
upside down the underside
of long stiff branches
until you see me leaping
into mid air as if gravity
weren't real and landing
on a distant bending twig
then on the ground and onto
the hard human surface
and quickly dash across
in a flow of short athletic hops
into the heavy moving wall
that appeared out of nowhere
and just as quickly disappeared

I partly stand here tall as can be
more frozen than in deep winter
in treetop nest in wild blue norther
with my mind clear again even
on this 100-degree summer day
when I'd simply been trying
to conduct my business
I have an acorn to dig up
I'm hungry and now I hurt
I'm scared and hope for the best
maybe I can try again to move now

The Hard Human Surface

Larry Piltz
June 2008
Indian Cove / Austin, Texas

The Rag Blog / Posted June 23, 2008

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