Challenging Poetry

the click of the wheels

the future is
a person sitting backward,
on a rollercoaster
screaming as she
pauses (top? middle?
how high is this hill?)
because she was the one
who laid the tracks
for the next section,
and when the world moves,
she may be climbing still
or poised at a drop
or a loop-de-loop,
and she doesn’t trust
her decision making anymore,
because she lived her past
and she wants off—
she wants someone else’s
future, someone who
paid more attention (that
pretty life, over there, maybe)
but there’s no stopping
the next click of the wheels
on the track,
and the world starts again,
and the future happens, screaming.

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