Full Speed Ahead

We've built this fortress on sandstone
in good and
dry times,

a castle
out of paper in summer
strong enough.

Now the rains that would normally grow
everything in sight
are washing away all under cloud.

There are great times
when we can have so much
but if we've paid no attention to the ground below us
we will become one with it.

I can see doctors,
read good magazines,
books cover to end,

and still
my house sits
on the foundation that it sits upon,
barely settled
at best.

Where is my purchase,
pill, test,
diagnosis, bid,
or any some resolution or another,
there has to be something to buy to fold all this into
and hide it away.

I am not sure who are the lucky ones,
those starting to wake,
or those still dreaming.

We have great bridges
attached to poor moorings on mountains
doing what they always do over time.

Old ones wearing away,
new ones going up,
none staying where we thought we had them pinned down.

Our eyes see so little of year after year
and so much of just today
a gift with its own curse,
like every finger on my hands
and the touch I can put on your back to make you forget
for tonight
at least.

We've built this castle
on the poorest shore
moving in wind alone
and now uneven
all our tables pour left,
don't drop anything round.

If we've paid no attention to the ground below us
we will become one with it.

And here we come,
still
mostly unaware,
but full speed ahead.