Explain to me what this is,
this winding back time,
this kicking up old loyalties
where I have no reason, no control.  

It’s like getting drunk and meeting an old lover
forgetting it’s been 25 years,
suddenly swiping key cards in hotel doors,
kicking off high heels and smearing mascara  

in streams of exquisite entropy.  

It’s like looping on a carnival ride,
spinning around, face pressed sideways,
centrifugal force lifting wrinkles
that fall back down when the ride is over.  

What is this thing that haunts me
like the faces of friends betrayed by years,
tears that never fell at the last wave goodbye,
having one more thing to say,  

their blinker flashing on and off as they drive away.  

It knocks me down if I turn my back,
like the ocean, her rhythm and swell, huge,
unpredictable on this small patch of sand.
She is life and death and we float and sink,  

forgetting that the curtains are shear
and the whole world is watching.