Frantic and Weightless

I can see the narrow bridge can almost feel the hands that pressed the stones together they belong to the faces that we have buried in time they belong to the workers whose lives got lost inside I ride across the narrow bridge feeling frantic and weightless

I reach down to touch this earth this ground, this dust, this dirt that I've walked over I touch the breath of someone next to me on the train when I raise my hand to grab a hold of the handle or the chain I ride across the narrow bridge feeling frantic and weightless

I used to know how to hold things, fragile as your consciousness, above my head hold it into the sun, watch it burn through the shadows of my fingers I thought that I could fly, at least in my own mind but I've grown afraid of a too-open space not filled up by human kind I ride across the narrow bridge feeling frantic and weightless

I can see the narrow bridge can almost feel the hands that pressed the stones together they belong to the faces that we have buried in time they belong to the workers whose lives got trapped so deep down inside I ride across the narrow bridge feeling frantic and weightless

© 1995 Rosanne Raneri