History is a visitor from the past.
Wonder how long this feeling will last.
Wonder who will succumb to pain.
Wonder who will stay the same.
An angel sings next to me.
She says the ship sails when we want to see
the world underneath, the freedom of fleeing.
The wonders worth seeing, are they worth seeing?
Would I feel anything in the temple of a king?
Sun dances on the audio engine and I don’t feel a thing.

Wonder what deliverance brings?
From Saint to sinner and back again.
From frozen madman in pyramid shed.
From Wonder Woman’s satin bed.
From less is more and loafs of bread.
Singing at a gasoline station.
The sound of the pump soothes my drunken head.

Would I feel anything but nothingness?
Medicated minstrel with muted strings?
Fly by night magician, but you know my tricks.
Would I pack it all away and sleep in a cabin
Away from the judgement, the medicine cabinet?

Forever and forever and ever amen.
Do what the pastor said, not as the pastor did.
This gliding symmetry
flows away from the me
in history’s mystery.

 

Jason Wright is the editor and founder of Oddball Magazine. His column appears weekly. His third book, Train of Thought 2: Almost Home is available now at the Oddball Book Store.