Scaffold
Mayumi Olivar


Rusty joints and old nails
The ladder holds
Under the weight you carry

It lightens as you climb
Even though the horizon
Never wavers in your gaze

You waver instead
Up on this flawed scaffold
Dreaming of buildings tall

Of falling
Of holding fast to the earth's broken grasp
And then reaching heavenwards to an imperfect sky

And the universe it conceals
And reveals

What are the odds?