Entropy's Eddy

Entropy's Eddy

From the bar,

we drove to the Hall in night’s sable shadow.

In the glare of the headlamps we saw

a blackbird by the roadside dying.

When we arrived at the Hall of Mirrors

we parked and hurried into light and sound.

Elbows akimbo,

we danced,

and time peeled back like an onion.

Oh, we were dazzling that night!

Smoke fled into cigarettes and pipes

and clap followed echo

as we took our bows.

After the show,

we piled into Ellen’s Mercedes

and raced to the bar.

On the way

we saw a bird

fly from a sporty red roadster

and into the waiting arms of a tree.

We drank absinthe and water, and

later we danced again

while the west paled in an early dawn,

and a blackbird cawed on the back porch rail,

speaking to us in time.

A flashy red roadster screeched into the lot,

putting to flight the bird and stopping all the clocks.

Still a while we danced in frozen time,

but the agents of entropy were among us,

and they started it up again.

Soon it was time to leave.

From the bar we drove west to the setting sun

till we came to the Hall of Mirrors
and the night began in earnest.

First published in "The Conspiracy Unmasked," 1994