PHILIPPE PETIT BALANCED ON HIS BEST DAY

Philippe Petit: Balanced On His Best Day

[for Elaine Fasula]

he will be balanced on a diamond thread
between two points: connecting the heart
to the Heart someday

around his head flowed the stars of Van Gogh,

the unfounded galaxies, the future snows,
the opalescent birds cut from their fairy tales at last,

escaped into ruby paned air.

oh how will he wound the doves from there with a mere gesture?
she sighed to his detractors
doffing his crown of breezes and if he slips it is not into


the abyss but into our wondering care

or wedged somewhere, so quietly
he thinks it is dreaming,

in a pale blue notebook,

cloud clotted lines
of the elegiac poem of a
little girl's old homework,
wind tossed (never lost),
returning.

she's from the everywhere,

collecting her bouquets,
her pocket creme sachets,

who rushes there-

as if to say: oh, not too late papa-
with borrowed gemmy wings o!
just in case?

mary angela douglas 8 june 2014