The Ferris Wheel

You can lay in the gold
You can sit in a chair
By the wayside
Side by side with your Dad
And let him tell you
That he's proud of you
By the way he adjusts the cap
Resting lightly on your head

You can see your house from here
You can see the top window
Where your bedroom lives
In a converted attic
That still smells like damp wood
And mothballs

You can see your Mom on the ground
Looking up at you
With both hands raised to wave
As if to say
She'd catch you if you fell

You pull down your hat tight
And the wheel speeds up
So that you're on the ground
And in the air
And in the sky
And back again
Before you have time
To estimate your arrival
At each place

You can see the wires running
Up and down the pier
And the sand being seared
By the mid-August sun
Drums down on the back of your neck
And you can feel your skin
Turn a different shade
And you bade your summer good-bye

You're around seven then
And the next time you'll be nine
After having dined with Dad
When he told you the bad news
About Mom and him
And the trip you'd be taking
Before the breaking of the family
Was complete

You wouldn't ride the wheel
For awhile after that
Remembering the cap
And how light it felt on your head
How it felt like it could fly off
At any given moment

You remember looking down at your mother
And wondering if she thought
That she could really do it
That she could really catch you
If you fell

And you're around ten
Before you remember these things again
And you're around fourteen
Before they mean anything to you
And you're around thirty
Before you're on the wheel with your son
Sharing similar news
While his mother is off on a cruise
Re-finding what she's lost of herself

And you go around
And you go around
And you go around

And you feel like you've come so far
And hit so many points
And yet when it all stops

You haven't really gone
Anywhere