Somewhere Deep

II. Looking Up

A narrow cut of sky  

Is what I have access to, looking up

From the corresponding slender base of the gorge

Where I now lie.

 

My back is supported by flat, dry earth - an extension

Of the same rock that took me in

When I plunged

from the cliffs of enchantment.

 

The blue stripe framed between the two rock shelves

from where I dove

is barely blue.

It’s painted over with streaks made by other divers.

 

I’m gazing up at them now:

the premeditated,

the unplanned,

each one, a unique trajectory.

 

Oh, the joy of watching the lovers

who resisted

with all their minds’ power

And plunged anyway

 

Who, regardless of rationale and responsibility,

headed pointedly

into the color

Smearing one hue into the next

 

Getting caught, getting dirty,

And for a moment in flight,

Forgetting

About the ground

 

The rainbow has its way with them

Tossing some divers about

Catching a few bodies in its broad, tinted bands.

Everyone eventually lands somewhere near the basin of love's canyon.

 

Eventually, everyone achieves this view, looking up.