Closing in July, and: Mr. Equilibrium & Mr. Vertigo

Closing in July

We planned to live here at least fifteen years,buying this house to grow old in,which didn't take as long as we thought.

Built this garden from a weedy yard,replaced the shake roof, painted outside and in.We planned to live here at least fifteen years.

She had spaces for music, weaving, art,and I had a quiet room to write in.But it didn't take as long as we thought

for her back to give out in the garden,for my balance to fail on the stairs.We planned to live here at least fifteen years

but abandoned it room by room. Four yearslater it belongs to somebody else.It didn't take as long as we thought,

and the light feels the same as the day we movedin, crazed by heat through maple leaves.We planned to live here a good fifteen years.It didn't take as long as we thought.

Mr. Equilibrium & Mr. Vertigo

Moonlight finds me balanced on a strandof spider's silk as I cross a gorge.Below, invisible currents roarand roil the air but I am steady,a man out for a stroll. And why notpirouette as wind turns wild since Iam impervious to dizziness?I can do away with light and line,become Mr. Equilibriumpoised on sheer air above the abyss.But then at the moment of wakingI recognize a familiar face.Mr. Vertigo, still playing tricks,leers at me from the horizon's edge.