Tilt-A-Whirl

My phantom brother came to me
His backlit face was hard to see
I couldn’t move, I couldn’t scream

You can’t un-hear Beethoven’s 5th
This human heart’s an aggregate
Competing feelings so disparate
And strange

Life’s a solitary song
No one to clap or sing along
It sounds so sweet and then it’s gone
So suddenly

My aging mother steeled herself
Against the gravity she felt
Braced for another fainting spell

Fell in her mind through a trap door
We picked her up off of the floor
When she came to her throat was sore
And she spoke

Life’s a game of solitaire
Amusement rides at county fairs
The Tilt-A-Whirl of our despair
Ends suddenly
Where’d it go?

Life’s a lonely love affair
Kaleidoscope beyond compare
It vanishes into thin air
So suddenly