NooseKnot (XII)

It begins with frayed rope, 

It will end with the same. 

Stretched, strained, suspended,

Stuck up in the air, dangling and paralyzed,

Feet waving in the wind.

How long have I been here, swinging

In the breeze, eyes long since lost

To the beak of some indolent crow.

I could escape, I think, but the 

Pain of the fall would surely shatter

My legs, and wiggling out of the rope 

Would wretch my head from my spine.

So here I hang, for a while, I think. 

Stuck between a rope and a high place, 

Dangling out over eternity,

Far too scared to jump.

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Garrett Speller is a college teacher in Tokyo, Japan, a game designer, and an aspiring author/poet. His creative work has previously been featured in Kyoto Journal, The Bristol Noir, and The Clockwise Cat. He has also published a game on Steam and academic work for Ludic Language Pedagogy. Those achievements, however, pale in comparison to the look on his student’s faces when he wore a banana costume to school for Halloween.