portegys (01/12/83)
Filling a bucket
I filled a bucket
Not long ago.
In a rush, I needed that bucket fast.
It was a single letter
In a novel I had planned.
It was a draft of air
In a windstorm I was stirring.
It had no right to take so LONG to fill.
Halfway full I knew it would never finish.
A fiendish illusion had grown real:
Water flowed up into the faucet to confound me.
It splashed and roiled merrily on,
But got no fuller.
It was playing a game -
It would be no one's thoughtless pawn;
No one's fool.
And down deep in that well
Those laughing liquid curtains fell,
So I propped me up on my elbows
And watched it fill.
Tom Portegys, BTL IH, ...ihuxv!portegys