the seamless surface

[in this extract from my novella-poem "Sludge White and the Seven Curmudgeons"

Guanyin,the blind hedge witch from the east, and her attentive apprentice

arrive at the spookhouse in the woods]:

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

she took another step on the seamless surface

and the monkey hid his face in his paws;

completely unable to come to grips

with her flat out denial of plausible laws.

he'd done his level best to dissuade her

stretching earthbound maxims as far as they'd extend

but gave up when he noticed the buzzing,

that bee in her bonnet for reality to bend.

so the shivering apprentice dangled

spirited on currents reserved for private flight,

clutching so tightly that his knuckles were numb

to a stringless and sightless, obstinate kite.

though stubbornly cuffing the memory of ground

he was dreading their impending descent.

his sense of balance was rendered uneasy

when breezes abruptly proceeded unbent.

as they angled their way through threaded branches

and the monkey saw his life go zipping by,

a sleepy owl hurled expletives

and a cheeky cicada climbed onto his thigh.

the trees pulled apart, revealing a cottage,

fronted by a garden and flower-draped bier

which the pair of primates neatly avoided

while slightly veering to steer clear of a deer.

and they lightly touched down on the spookhouse stoop

with nary a hitch in Guanyin's striding glide.

wedging a stick for writhing cicadas,

she said "well that's that, then" and blithely walked inside.

- Evan Hawthorn, the 2^nd of February, 2016