Margeaux Walter © 2021
by Harryette Mullen
Approaching the Pinnacle
Long before darkness blooms, you have lost your way. Devils blaze the path ahead. Strangers render you anonymous, extinguishing your brilliance. Haphazard signals misdirect your progress. Like frightened cattle, your followers bolt. Packs of wild dogs play clever tricks, awaiting their chance to nip and tear your succulent flesh. Don’t mistake boulders for bread or hesitate to pray for guidance. You may walk aimlessly in this wilderness, or God may send a spark to brighten your night, a flash of light from far-off bushes, burning.
In a Nutshell
You approach heaven as you unleash earth. Launching into orbit, you count on cheating gravity. From where you sit, the planet looks compact and definite, also diminished and vulnerable. Lulled to sleep with weightless dreams, you float airlessly, divinely undisturbed. Sealed inside your hermetic pod, stale breath, recycled, inspires unearthly experiments. Silence multiplies within your capsule, blotting out distractions. Ruler of infinite space, free to carve an epic in a nutshell, what wisdom will you share when you splash down?
Harryette Mullen’s books include Sleeping with the Dictionary, Recyclopedia, and Urban Tumbleweed, as well as a collection of essays and interviews, The Cracks Between. Her prose poems have been reprinted in several important prose poem anthologies. She teaches creative writing, American poetry, and African American literature at UCLA.