On the 'Wild River'

On the Wild River.

Black tar boils at my feet. I blow a breeze to steer a bumblebee from a
path of liquid fire. A wind lifts leaf snakes from the piles beside the
path - the same path that's about to become yet another line of fire
minds floating distantly in space. I'm tripping down a sugar slide to
somewhere deep. I reach out; my fingers touch my mirrored fingers
reaching back at me. I remembered wondering whether I prefered sugar or
honey. Both lines of thought taste sweet. Other people's faces look
cute. Chopper blades of light raced across my face as I whirled beneath
some trees. There is only one way down and it always involves a fall.
My stomach forgets that my body has moved.

We're racing higher still. I use my tongue to twease two clouds apart.
This is the sun not the moon and yellow yolk runs down my chin. I
believe that I can think. I know that I am having fun. A row of green
lights change to blue. I can see the sea and it's all around. I hear a
conversation between a topless woman and a naked man on a boat bobbing
roughly a thousand miles away. There's a wink from a wave and they're
gone. Another spot of light that joins the other dancing suns. I was
floating on a wave like that but now I'm back. My boat is a log and my
log is a boat - I am a train boat. Take me to the top and take me
higher again. My stomach catches up and I'm glad it's back again. But
now we're really falling. I can see my partner's face grinning at me. I
play stepping stones across her perfect white teeth. If I had a gun I
would shoot a hole in the sky. It could be starting to rain. It could
be spray. I taste blood on my tongue.

I fell down and with me came the sky. A beach tilts at an angle until
the people start to slide. The beach disappears. The sea is everywhere
again. I hear a hush between my ears. Pass me a lance and I will skewer
a seagull. The very tips of the feathers start to curl in the heat as
it flies too close to the sun. Everything is blue. I roll back the
sleeve of my T-shirt and the skin under it is blue too. Where is my
life going to? Where are all the people I used to know? I reach the
bottom of the slide and watch fingers of water join hand above my head
before landing in my lap. The world starts moving again as we reach a
halt. The sun feels warm. Long live the Wild River and all who sail in
this ship.