Detour to Bliss by Sheila Meltzer

Detour to Bliss

Sheila Meltzer

Restive with the endless crossing
of a Sunday freight train in the gloomy
rain my head turns left right
left to puzzle will there never be an end,
until I witness how the rise and
fall of my rib cage meets
the push and pull of the pistons,
how the cool, then warmed
air flows through my tubes
in sync with the turning
of the wheels, with
the past and the future with the
cars that came and those that will,
with the present in the moment in and out,
with the pulse that is now.

Under cover of the thundering
course from there to here I slip
into the stillness that endures
within the whirlpool of my life and
happen, in their unity, on bliss.


About the Author

Sheila Meltzer earned a Ph.D in linguistics from the CUNY Graduate Center, which of course has nothing to do with creative writing. A native of Brooklyn, she now lives in Berkeley and works in software development, which of course has nothing to do with linguistics. In her free time she writes poetry and short stories, which of course has everything to do with everything, except for publication, until now.