Shudder

I wake up suddenly - everything
(chairs, books,
          treetops, bedclothes,
    us)
        falls over and over the
          room.

Hallo! Too bad! We've stopped again!
We've broken down again!

Possums spend off-duty nights
skiing down our roof.
Now they're squealing with the geogasm:
all of them came off.

Humpback whales rock the room
exuberantly spouting out the storm.
Lick the honey from my hand,
scoop the ant's-tongues from the ground.
Three fish, in slow green ecstasy
swim across our windowsill.
Collect yourself, before the world is still.

Dennis List