NaPM April 13 2016

[Achebe]

So far I fell

By sheer luck, I made your acquaintance

at a conference I didn't care about,

attending to network, find someone out

to steer my hand through the corporate pell mell.

I was sheltering from the rain

under an awning in a cigarette strewn lane

when you walked by,

whirlwind of my autumn sky,

seeing you, I fell

into Canto V, the cries of cranes,

tossed by the wind 

from wall to wall, my voice thinned,

while thoughts, like birds, flew endlessly through

the labyrinth. I shouted, 'Beatrice!' but you

were far away, beyond the mountain guarded by beasts, beyond

the farthest circle of despond, and I 

no wayfarer guided by Virgil, but lost in the darkness of hell.

So far I fell.