How to get comfortable on a roller coaster                           

by Julie Daniels

 
It’s as if I’m diving, swooping up and plunging
gripped by a strap that anchors me to my impermanence.
 
What if I loosened the belt? Or tossed it completely?
my arms transforming now into wings of rust
and sapphire blue
(the colors of my desert home)
 
I gaze down at the humans below me,
their frantic racing, and obsessive fear-
twisting their own wings
into weapons of righteous possession.
 
I spot a group of children
playing at the seashore,
unafraid and happy,
they run through the ocean waves
knowing nothing of shame, fear, disappointment
and death.
 
I want to gather them up;
protect them from the quiet desperation
of so much of adult existence…
 
But I am propelled downward now
lower
and lower still
until--
BAM!
Back in my seat.
 
The belt is looser now,
but I know if I really wanted to…
I could fly.
 

* * * * * 
 
In January of this year, Julie Daniels won The Thomas Lux Poetry Fellowship at The Palm Beach Poetry Festival. Her newest poem “Wonder” was recently published by PIF Magazine, Julie’s essays and memoir have been published by Psychological Perspectives and Thefix.com. Her latest memoir piece, “Rising to Resilience” won The Writer in Residence Award, at the Women of Resilience Conference in Santa Fe, New Mexico. More about Julie at http://www.teechspeech.com