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