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Along the Wall of Campbellton Dam 1 of 2

Pulled off the road
Stirred up the dust
Sat in my car
Over the fence
Campbellton dam
Built in nineteen e-
leven by pow-
erful alien workers
Twenty-four hun-
dred five feet across
Keep off the dam
Danger Beware
Waters may change
Strong undertow
No swimming allowed
Over the fence
Right about eight
touchdowns to make
A drop in the o-
cean on my left
Roaring of mock-
ing on my right
Into the lake or
Over the falls
Taking a step
Along the stone wall
Look at my watch
No time for this
No time at all
Stare at the face
Minutes turn past
Hours and days
Sunset again
Sunrise and then
I take a few steps
Into the light
Holding a can-
vas of a land-
scape oil painted
with falls like this
cotton, like sailcloth
Pulling me on
Two foot by three
Not very big
But crossing like this
It might as well be
a main sail on mast and
my arms are the spars as
the edge of a cloud
Black overhead
Blown by the winds
twisting my arms
my column of spine
A mad acrobat
on a stretched wire
out in the wind
throwing up rain
a flat parasol
now up over-
head and just four
fields to go but
I stop myself
Look at my watch
No time at all
Deadline's approaching
I almost fall
Concentrate now
I'm getting cold
I'm pretty wet but
Rain's letting up
I take a step
I pick up the pace
I'm running now
A drop in the o-
cean on my left
And on my right
Well out of my depth
three hundred feet
to undoubted death
Spitting at me
Laugh in my face
Roaring the numbers
I stop and look
Don't look too good
Out of my pocket
I pull out my dice
Shooting the works
Rolling a seven
I laugh right on back
On the knife-blade
"Calling your bluff
You got nothing at all"
The wind's picking up
My two die goes plunk
The five doesn't move
(too long for PSoup, continued)

Copyright © Lawrence Strauss | Year Posted 2025

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