Godspeed

Godspeed

Embroidery hoop into hamster wheel,
into tambourine fringed with silver zills

each transforming into a mini-tambourine
dangling from the mother ship. For so long,

you bop along, life around you swapping
scenes like painted scrims at the back

of the stage, images of the far-off sky
or mountains to say distant lands. Then

the world puffs up, every shape inflates,
the spider you almost killed becomes

the spider you rescued, good luck, you
want to say, as you release him into

the yard, godspeed. Once you see that
one thing is not flat, how quickly

the bellows bestow dimension in all
things, into time, too, failing light of day

hot as a pale fireball, the re-encountered
crummy first apartment welling up

and sparkling. You know what it takes
to make a new human, to teach him

how fun it is to pop the plastic bubbles
in the bubble wrap, no need to hold back.