Howard Firkin
The universe is full of wheels. Count five
and stop—of course you think the fifth wheel ’s you,
but keep on counting for an hour or two
and here’s the reason you keep me alive:
you’re one wheel in a million. One. The one.
We chase ourselves around the whole nine spheres
of heaven: comets, planets, moons, and stars,
and find ourselves alone in crowded bars.
You smile and every other disappears.
I wheel in orbits no one’s ever done.
Your spinning sets the universe alight,
that whirl of sex and smiles and laughing: you.
A single star looks tiny in the night,
but light and love are all we have that’s true.
and stop—of course you think the fifth wheel ’s you,
but keep on counting for an hour or two
and here’s the reason you keep me alive:
you’re one wheel in a million. One. The one.
We chase ourselves around the whole nine spheres
of heaven: comets, planets, moons, and stars,
and find ourselves alone in crowded bars.
You smile and every other disappears.
I wheel in orbits no one’s ever done.
Your spinning sets the universe alight,
that whirl of sex and smiles and laughing: you.
A single star looks tiny in the night,
but light and love are all we have that’s true.