From the notebooks: Radio Isotope

[pjthompson]

Actual events as they actually happened.

(originally from Feburary 11, 1999)




Radio Isotope

Driving from the hospital, the clouds
in the radiant blue sky pile high, clusters
of white cotton atoms around a nuclei of silver,
glowing from the inside, pulsing with light.
I want never to forget them, to absorb
each particle of every moment, every charmed quark
and long-lived J from now until the end of my time.
My gratitude is immense enough for that sky,
and no matter how black my heart may grow
nothing can change this moment:
there was no light on the film.

I thank God for another reprieve,
for my mediocre life and these mediocre poems,
for the sweet chain reaction of joy spilling out of me
and into that sky. I thank God! I am not dying yet.

Ahead of me on the highway a car jumps the shoulder at 60,
careens towards a lamppost, the driver oblivious. At the last
moment possible, his head snaps up, he sees the post, wrenches
away to continue weaving down the freeway.

I stay well behind him, suddenly sober,
mindful once more that meltdowns
wait around every curve in the road.

—PJ Thompson

Comments

[stillnotbored.livejournal.com]

Yeah... been there.

You made me cry by the way. Good job. :)

[pjthompson]

Thanks. :-)