walking

(book dated 8/24/93)

walking along narrow floor boards
from one room to another
the heat from the airduct
fills the room with a single speck
as small as a pinpoint.
Descending the stairs
into a pool of mirror smoothe
water, the railing
beside the stairs grows
colder and gradually more
metallic.

descending to the bottom
of the stairs, the light,
which the water bends in all
directions, reveals the single
speck, that the airduct had
made, descending slowly through
the water, about three inches
above the railing.
Arriving at the bottom
there is a tiny window
holding back the water
below the bottom step. It
looks out on a paved road
          and a field of grass