Poetry of Issue #7        Featured Poet Sherman: Page 2

EVERY WHICH WAY

Imagine a globe spinning through space
You are standing in Canada    The stars are
singularly bright   You watch them in silence
You are standing in China   Bikers struggle  
through crowded streets   Pollution so dense
it obscures the light   You are standing in Spain  
It is summer   The sun burns your flesh 
as you reach toward your daughter's hand   
You are standing in Africa   The Serengeti is quiet   
Predators wait for night   You are standing in Antarctica   
The sky dimming in preparation for winter's long sleep   
You are standing at the North Pole   or in a big city   
Calcutta perhaps   or Moscow  Buenos Aires  New York 
You are standing in the suburbs   on the plains   
on an island   Do you ever think it curious 
no matter where you are   freed of gravity  
you will fall into space   Perhaps even now you 
slant at a ninety degree angle   or worse  
with your head hanging permanently down  
How athletic to be stretched out sideways  
rigid as a board   What determination to remain 
the wrong way round   the soles of your feet where
your head should be   Have you ever considered 
how distorted our perception of who we are 
how we are placed might be  When we are   all of us
standing   every which way but up 

  Susan Sherman