Kaleidoscope
written by: Carmen Frech Oliveri
What I feel is what it must feel like to tumble down a very large cliff at a distinctively large speed,
a combination of fear and anger swallows you until the very last moment in which your skull crashes against a rock,
your brain never stops firing,
It screams,
why didn’t you just stay beneath the cliff,
why did you ever wake up that morning thinking that you could climb it in the first place, you out of all people, why did you think you could reach the top and now look at you, sideways sliding, feeling the pull of sharp needles against your skin, a heat that covers your body, you are shaking, but of course you are, you are in your own impending death, the wind is violent, the sun is harsh, there are minute rocks disturbed by your body slowly sliding, maroon dust specks in the air, far away a wave of the ocean, rimmed with salt, crabs crawling in the sand, you close your eyes now, what sense would there be in you keeping them open?
What I feel is what it must feel like to tumble down a very large cliff,
miles away someone is sipping on a drink, their feet hanging covered in rhinestones, sleeves like parachutes, glasses clinking, crumbs cleared off the tablecloth,
miles from there a child hides under the sheets hoping today she will be forgotten,
someone is picking at an old scab while they hope to live one more day,
someone whispers I love you, deeply, into a wet pillow,
someone says, “Mother, I miss you.”
a fist buries itself into dough,
more and more chatter,
Someone says, “Play with me”
little pools of soapy water and chalk
rest on the pavement.
Life is much like a kaleidoscope…
Close your eyes now,
What sense would there be in you keeping them open?
I am happy to rejoin the world of poetry, after so many years of silence. We all know that a little bit of ourselves lives and breathes in every single written word. Thank you kindly for reading.
- Kaleidoscope - August 2, 2026
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