Pipe Dreams

Rising, ever rising

Vague pulses behind my eyes

Slowly first then faster and faster

Through tattered clouds and swirling smoke

Skyward bound with visions before my eyes

Of nymphs and dryads that beckon

Voices ringing like silver bells

Eyes that dance and hair of sunlight

Spun on wheels from golden straw

This is not the clay of earthly sorrows

Where all I touch decays to mould and dust

This is something else altogether

This is new, exhilarating, a whirling carousel

Of light and colour where the brass ring

Passes ever closer within my grasp

I know this time is short

The fall from such a height will be great

But I’ll ride the wave for as long as it lasts

Feeling it begin to curl beneath my feet

Before it breaks apart in flecks of foam

Tossed high into the open air

The crash of rolling thunder

Resounding in my ears

This is so unlike the dreary progression

Of hours and days that passes for the march of time

Here time itself is stretched, each moment a hundred moments

Fused together, then let go in a burst of fission

A spectacle of light and sound delighting every sense.

Too soon, too soon, the ride is over

An experience like no other experience

A time like no other time

A journey like no other

So “Buy the ticket. Take the ride”

Worth any price of admission