Veins
River networks in your arms whose branches stretch out and up
Down and around like a rollercoaster
And blood courses like the little carts filled with screaming people
Cells flood the hallways and tiny classrooms
The highways and the off-roads
Of your body, as a whole
Called the atmosphere.
It is blue and green and also a bit brown (but ironically in summer
And not winter when it should be, everything dead)
It is a million colors, even some that can’t be found.
Paddling in microscopic canoes
Down and around and down and around
Through the easy crystal currents and the rocky patches
Even an occasional waterfall:
A needle sucks up the vital liquid and gives it away to
Another atmosphere in need.
Or, perhaps, this atmosphere has taken a tumble
Scraped off its bark
And now it needs healing, it needs a bandage
So the water leaks out in roaring bursts.
Abundant is the flow
Until the end of the world.
Until the tick of time tells us it’s going to dry up.
Swimming in deserts from then onward.
Down and around like a rollercoaster
And blood courses like the little carts filled with screaming people
Cells flood the hallways and tiny classrooms
The highways and the off-roads
Of your body, as a whole
Called the atmosphere.
It is blue and green and also a bit brown (but ironically in summer
And not winter when it should be, everything dead)
It is a million colors, even some that can’t be found.
Paddling in microscopic canoes
Down and around and down and around
Through the easy crystal currents and the rocky patches
Even an occasional waterfall:
A needle sucks up the vital liquid and gives it away to
Another atmosphere in need.
Or, perhaps, this atmosphere has taken a tumble
Scraped off its bark
And now it needs healing, it needs a bandage
So the water leaks out in roaring bursts.
Abundant is the flow
Until the end of the world.
Until the tick of time tells us it’s going to dry up.
Swimming in deserts from then onward.