Just a Bang and a whimper - 1/18/2002

I

Don't cry
All it takes is a Bang and a Whimper
to make things right again
you've got new shoes. See?
Pretty ribbons and rainbow straps
Real metal buckles and leather backs

All it takes is a Bang and a Whimper
If life were that simple
why do you cry at the jarring ring
Of the telephone unanswered or the doorbell's chime?
Are you perhaps afraid of Nursary Rhymes?
Of the Mailman or of bodiless voices that hide
On the Rainbow's other side?

Don't cry.
It robs the prettiness from your eyes
It makes them puffy red
Broken pearls instead of rubies flashing
Stars from the night sky splashing

II

On the cloud drift dress, which seam holds together the puffing billowing underneath volume of air moving ship sail under the Tyrant's tale? Sewing means lashing textures together alike, unlike doesn't matter. High on riggin they sew. Against the screaming whistling they hum a song to the inward ear - they sew. Crossing thick needles iron thick with the suppleness of thread they wrap the blunt needle heads with cotton, to make the sewing smooth and efficent. Needles used so long their pin prick points are blunt sensations drawing no blood. White sail is kept pristine and no stain tells which unfortunate Laddie upon the sail smeared his mark. Ruthless stabs through textures - cloth, skin, no flesh, never through to bone. Their sewing hands are blistered and worn for the toughness of canvas on skin new born means layers cannot form. One thick canvas shroud, billowing when the cheeks of heaven bloat themselves silly, or is it fatulence divine?

Is the baby laughing, or is it only gas? Thomas Pynchon