Growing a New Self
In fleeting glimpses of the future I saw Van Gogh;
He hung low from the gallows, swinging softly,
Creaking out an inviting elegy that beckoned me.
*****
What if you caught Renaissance fever;
Would you lie down, with a cold washcloth on your forehead
Or could you cut off your own thumb to spite your fist?
Would you eat a starfish to regrow your limb,
Or would you plant your finger and see what grows from it?
Would you allow yourself the freedom;
Would you ride a white blood inner tube off the cliff,
Dripping from your own amputated thumb?
Or would you congeal and clog and block that hole,
So that no more of you could ever escape that road?
Could you catch and endure the vision;
Would you close your eyes to escape the reality
Or could you imagine bowstrings and violins in the clouds?
Could a crescendo fall down as rain on your umbrella
Or would the percussion of a thunderclap scare you
down?
What if your temperature dropped;
Would the loss of inspiration instill panic,
Or would a grasp of self control regain belief?
Would you eat fire to kick start your furnace,
Or would gracefully cool down with old age?
*****
Years later I revisited a tree with treble clefs for leaves,
And when the wind blew through I heard the clatter of
chimes
Accompanying the sky's percussion and strings.
Copyright © 2009 by Christopher Raymond Campbell
Christopher Raymond Campbell will be a
senior at