Y-Axis

Start on a graph, X and
Y. Space, with time
dependant. Everything on it
is moving diagonally through
both; a ray of quantum
physics. A brush, coated
with paint, a leveled line.
Diagonal.

Paint the flag on a wall,
red bucket a top the towers
of an A-frame ladder.
Your foot slips, the ladder
moves, and the paint topples.
A single word, patriotic:
"No!"
Paint freezes, time stops.
Move now, only in space,
Horizontal.

Gather paint out of the air
back in the bucket, no time
wasted; frozen at room temperature.
You should have let it fall.
Now you're horizontal; space.
The universe is diagonal; space-time
left behind, and you
don't know how to be
Vertical.

Isabel Church is a Junior Creative Writing Major at Eckerd College, Florida, and hopes to go on to attend graduate school at the University of Florida in two years. Though her primary focus is usually fiction and humorous essay, she dabbles occasionally in the poetic field, and has been an avid fan of all forms of speculative fiction for most of my life.

Find more by Isabel Church in the Author Index.

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