Catechism of Switchbacks
We take our children to Disneyland,
so they may learn suffering
always precedes joy,
as labor comes before birth.
We begin our ascent
through the calculations,
fourteen rides,
five hundred ninety turns
of the clock,
toward the day’s heat,
the humid press of crowd,
the coconut chrism of sunscreen
glazing us like offerings
left in the sun
for the ritual of waiting.
The holy geometry of switchbacks,
progress unmade by the turning,
each loop returning us
to the beginning,
a pilgrimage through the labyrinth
where, at the center,
the soul will find
its ecstatic release
ninety minutes of motion
in a day of hours
to live and move
and accelerate through trumpet blast
to behold
the face of God.
We take our children to Disneyland,
so they may learn suffering
always precedes joy,
as labor comes before birth.
We begin our ascent
through the calculations,
fourteen rides,
five hundred ninety turns
of the clock,
toward the day’s heat,
the humid press of crowd,
the coconut chrism of sunscreen
glazing us like offerings
left in the sun
for the ritual of waiting.
The holy geometry of switchbacks,
progress unmade by the turning,
each loop returning us
to the beginning,
a pilgrimage through the labyrinth
where, at the center,
the soul will find
its ecstatic release
ninety minutes of motion
in a day of hours
to live and move
and accelerate through trumpet blast
to behold
the face of God.
The secret of poetry is cruelty.--Jon Anderson