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
