The Rise and Fall

"The Rise and the Fall"
By Ashton Goggans
Dashed lines, racing to the horizon.
Sun setting on crisp autumn air and
The Flatlands blur together
As you drift to sleep, uninterested,
Bubbles are carrying the brave
Against the bronze, bleeding sky.

Do I wake you?
Would you care?
This life, beautiful,
Passing you by and I can’t stop it.
So I stop, for me, and follow them.

Abandoned fire-tower stretched to heaven
I open the door--the fall
Tickles your skin awake with a shudder
"Look," I say. "It's beautiful."
But you see balloons through the eyes,
Those hazy hazel eyes, of the dead.

It is done. I know. And I am scratching over the fence
Before your eyes close
Climbing towards the sky, I can smell the sea
But all you see is dusk, never dawn, and broken me,
Out the window (always out the window)
of the passenger seat.