What's Up - by Martin Heavisides
What's Up
I don't know what the object is in the far left corner of our attic
A metal shaped egg? A brain in protective casing?
It could be either of these and that's not all
It gleams like it might be made of gold or brass
Who polishes it? I never catch anyone
I think maybe it polishes itself
Which is clever because normally you'd need hands
The ladder that leads to the attic
Continues all the way up to the moon
Only the rungs are invisible and dangerous to climb
What if they suddenly went out of existence
Halfway up with nothing but black space to cling to?
That stuff's slippery, you'd just fall and fall
Nobody really believes me about the moon rungs
But I have my reasons
There are other things that object in the corner could be
It doesn't talk, at least to me, so I might as well speculate
It does hum late at night through the walls
Maybe it's a transceiver from distant galaxies
Maybe it's the petrified chrysalis of a long-extinct caterpillar
That would be a butterfly you'd want to approach with caution
It glows late at night the same eerie glistening yellow
I haven't seen it, would you go up there at night?
On the plus side, you wouldn't need a flashlight
On the minus, what if it's nasty when you wake it?
And anyway how could the light that floods through my night room
All come from outside? The shadows cut too many ways
I know some attics don't have these but a lot of them might
Other kids wouldn't necessarily talk about it at school
I don't much myself, wish I'd never mentioned it to the guidance counsellor
Who doesn't believe either tears or sweat sometimes streams down the seams
So I'd just as soon not mention when it's sometimes blood
But I don't know how I could scrub so hard if it wasn't
And I don't buy the G.C.'s theory it's a pure hallucination
Or some kind of prop made of papier mache I'm afraid to look at closely
Who's he kidding? As if dad and mom's theatrical background
Was a license to believe what you like about any strange happening
Who said these people are masters of life logic?
It got me my first ever A+ in art
Though my teacher thinks I should find another subject
It's just there are so many angles of approach to this one
I can carry it on as a project of my own
For class next I'll draw the ladder to the moon
I can do that at least if I can't ever climb it
Martin Heavisides
martinheavisides@sympatico.ca
http://theevitable.blogspot.com
Wojtek Biczysko Attic, metal, 2007
