Digital publication | Page 5

Go Outside by Jemma Timberlake

MÖBIUS STRIP

by Joe Carvalko

As the centuries turned one into another,

we lost the gift of ancients

for hearing muted primal screams,

for seeing Munch’s faceless shriek,—

the unmistakable precursors

of everything spiraling into darkness.

I did not see her wane

and wander in the whirligig of despair,

until they threw the keys away.

They took her to the place

where lights bounced-off

linoleum, worn and polished,—

behind metal doors

with a window,

a lock turned,

behind which people twirled, laughed,

lifted dresses over their heads

or sucked their thumbs and bawled.

I searched for tapestries of blues, births,

deaths that might yield clues known

to a prior life, threads that lead

to why or where?

But, like a skein of twine wound

into a möbius strip; neither can I trace.