Balanced On the Edge

just when you think it’s over (click to listen)

The philter will bind you a year and a day,
your body and mind beaded on a thread of time,
and when at last it’s done with you,
holding the strength of your sinews,

your body and mind beaded on a thread of time,
what will you have but fire on your mind?
Holding the strength of your sinews,
the philter will find you, I swear, some way.

What will you have but fire on your mind?
Arms & eyelids strung, you’re a marionette.
The philter will find you, burn your mind, some way
as you dance on the street for the crowd.

Arms and eyelids strung, you’re a marionette,
a tattered Pierrot at a mute carnivale.
As you dance on the street for the crowds,
your muscles bundle into nerve bouquets.

A tattered Pierrot at a mute carnivale,
void of a beloved, you will need my help.
As you dance on the street for the crowds,
you climb inside my cauldron, feast from burning hands.

Void of a beloved, you will need my help
opening surfaces, unsheathing layers.
You climb inside my cauldron, feast from burning hands
that run along your rough fibrillations.

Opening surfaces, it unsheathes your layers,
and when at last it’s done with you,
running along your rough fibrillations,
the philter will bind you a year and a day.

***

I arranged the lines for this pantoum from quatrains by the following poets, including one line I wrote.

rethabile
nathan
michelle
jillypoet
dana

To read the original quatrains, please visit poems in progress: quatrain chain at the poetry collaborative.

The first and last line of this pantoum comes from a collaborative poem by Jo Hemmant and Michelle McGrane, entitled Each act of love foreshadows the end.