by Bruce Boston
The surreal staircase
slides like an escalator
from one generation
to the next.
Mount the
surreal staircase
at your own risk
as you would mount
some wild beast
that could break
for freedom
at any moment
or turn to devour you
without restraint.
The surreal staircase
moves through dimensions
that stretch the joists
and tendons of perception
to a breaking point.
The surreal staircase
circles back upon itself
to relive an absurdist
moment over and again
until it is petrified
in your consciousness.
Perennial travelers
on the surreal staircase
bear the indelible stamp
of bohemian fascination.
Obsessive compulsives
on the surreal staircase
cleanse the swinging
doors of perception
until they shine
with numinous light.
Veneered celebrities
often clamber up
the surreal staircase
merely to slide down
its banister
over and again.
The banister
of the surreal staircase
sometimes splinters
in liquid streaks
from the clasp
of too many thighs.
The ancestral paintings
that line the walls
become abstract
expressions of
their former selves.
Interior landscapes
can undulate
like anemones.
Step carefully now --
there is no carpet
here to break your fall.
Only the dreams
you have forgetten.
Appeared in New Myths