poetry wednesday : the dying are such acrobats

Trapeze

See how the first dark takes the city in its arms 
and carries it into what yesterday we called the future.  

O, the dying are such acrobats. 
Here you must take a boat from one day to the next,  

or clutch the girders of the bridge, hand over hand. 
But they are sailing like a pendulum between eternity and evening,

diving, recovering, balancing the air. 
Who can tell at this hour seabirds from starlings,  

wind from revolving doors or currents off the river. 
Some are as children on swings pumping higher and higher.  

Don't call them back, don't call them in for supper. 
See, they leave scuff marks like jet trails on the sky.

-Deborah Digges

We channel our pain into art, don't we?

Art serves an identity function–it helps us find who we are. This poet jumped off a stadium and killed herself in 2009.

She was sailing like a pendulum between eternity and evening, diving, recovering, balancing the air. You can hear her read the poem here.

[Image from here]