Twenty miles away

Is it the thorn of love in my side, or the huge weight of the world upon my soul that makes me growl...

We are only twenty miles away, said the emergency services on my radio.

And then the devil in disguise as a whistle blew his whistle in my ear and caused me some concern, about his constant pinpricks upon my sanity that wanted to get in. So I changed my mind and became a convert, so much so that I was bursting out all over the place.

No one was surprised.

So then I made up a new name to be, and waited for the ambulance to come, from twenty miles away.

Is this your deathbed confession asked the maudlin voice?

No it is not, I said back to it.

Then what is it, it said?

It is: eyes only for those that believe.

And what must they believe?

They must believe this, that anyone that believes anything at all is a simpleton fallen upon his soul.

That’s too profound for me to bear witness to, it said into the waiting void of my soul.

Then what are you doing here?

I have no idea.

That ambulance got here yet?

It’s still twenty miles away.

Twenty miles away, the ambulance was a mile an hour in the fog, two souls driving it, big eyed and staring, scared creatures that wanted to turn back and go home.

Spectres and spooks swirled out of the mist as if through their windows at them, and they, two electrified souls in the night.

And twenty miles still to go, sang the poet in the still glow of his heart.

The two in the ambulance drove on forever through the fog, as they went around in circles, twenty miles away.

Death waits for the lonely to finally give up and take that last leap, to say: no more, I’ve had enough.

Death waits, and listens to the hopelessness and despair take over.

Yes, death listens to every word you say and has a whip ready to take your tongue out; well, it’s a very fast whip and is made out of the very best materials and can sting a horse’s eye at a hundred feet, so taking out a tongue is no bother at all.

I’ll take ten for the death machine and one to go, unwrapped, just sling it over my shoulder, is said.

Oh, death does indeed wait, just around the corner and up the dark alley that you know you really don’t want to go down.

Twenty miles away from this was a time machine ready to go off, and a parachute sailing by in the wind, when all of a sudden a hand came out of nowhere and said: halt!

So everything halted.

A good few miles back in the column, the colonel major shouted out: what’s the hold up?

But of course, nobody knew; which led to many beliefs that couldn’t get along together; so the switch was pulled all the way down until the light came on and the audience applauded.

Act two

It’s the great show, ladies and gentlemen and we are proceeding as we will; and as we have arrived in act two, let us get on with it…

Twenty miles away…

Rationale showed up with all her bumps hanging out everywhere, until I just had to surrender; and as I was dying, more rationale showed up to dance on by, and some French girl on the corner, singing a song, offered me a night out on the town.

Pulling up my spirit, I carried on spending my drift where I could and noticed all the pulls coming at me to visit them until I couldn’t resist anymore; and then I was pulled in to look up and see everyone staring down at me as if I was all they could believe in.

Help, I said, struggling to escape, and wished I was twenty miles away.

But life didn’t do instant stuff life that and I had to wait.

As I uttered a double drat about this, the French girl on the corner sang her song louder until I couldn’t hear anything else.

The weakling of the mob was pushed forward to see if this had any purpose and came back totally useless for evermore and made the whole regiment want to enrol.

But of course, this was twenty miles away, and so didn’t count.

A huge boo came from the back from where the loud potatoes lived and asked to be let out before the revolution started their reactions again to cause more disbelief.

Well, you know, I finally got to the swimming pool after dark; and so walking in at the shallow bit until I couldn’t fall forward anymore I began swimming and let go, and swam to the other side where I held on tight and looked around.

I still found myself twenty miles away.

So I decided to take a nap and wake up when I could.

And as I drifted under I lost consciousness and knew nothing more until I woke up again to remember I was swimming in the stormy sea where I was lost to go.

Love has a way like that; one moment safe and sound, the other lost to be drowned.

The damn thorn of love had many parameters to obscure me where I observed my death many times and couldn’t raise a nickel for relief.

So I asked myself: is there a way to get through this without losing my mind?

Twenty miles away was the answer which was maybe no answer at all, but I felt I’d sure go with it if I could get close enough.

That’s what I thought anyway as I slipped onwards.

Closer to dawn than midnight I woke up my love and asked her to make love with me.

Three minutes later my love went back to sleep and I found I was still twenty miles away, which is a very long way away when you’re trying to find out where you are.

So I said: I’ve done the best I can and it’s not my fault if I can’t get any closer than this.

End of part one

Images from Pixabay