A CAROUSEL

By Mark Reed

My life has been a Carousel;

Round and round and up and down;

What a ride it has been;

Exciting and exhilarating from start to finish;

From one ride to another from tiny seats, to ponies to mighty steeds;

The colors always changing and almost blinding;

And beautiful;

The music trilling in my ears and making my body vibrate;

My God, what a ride;

My eyes were always wheeling round and round, trying to take it all in;

It all passed in a flash, really;

One after another, they flew by, blowing up my senses;

Reaching, grasping, trying to grab it all;

From the Calliope and circus noise;

To the rousing organ surrounding me with vibrations;

Then the pipes, oh the pipes, thrilling me with their notes;

My God, what a ride;

As I advanced upward on larger mounts;

The more wondrous and exciting it became;

I was almost overcome with all it offered;

This Carousel ride;

From one to another I would leap;

Sometimes missing, but always remounting;

Waiting for the next round of the Carousel;

My God, what a ride;

With each revolution, it was new and changing;

How is that, I asked, not really wanting an answer;

Just taking it all in as if each circumference was my last;

And refusing for that to be so;

Hanging on for dear life;

To ride and ride and ride;

My God, what a ride;

The rides were bumpy, they were for sure, sometimes;

But that was part of the challenge;

The exhilaration, the breath escaping from your chest;

The moment where you didn’t know whether you would be thrown;

But holding on for dear life;

Because your life depended on it;

This wonderful life;

My God, what a ride;

And then, the wondrous and magnificent surge of life continuing;

I made another trip around my Carousel;

And was committed to savoring and loving every trip around;

To make sure to do everything possible to continue the ride;

This wondrous ride;

A ride I never wanted to end;

The Carousel was my life, and I clung to it;

My God, what a ride;

There were others with me on my Carousel;

Those who put me on it to start with and kept me safely on it;

But they did not last;

Their Carousel ride would end;

But I was enriched and loved while they were with me;

Me finally holding onto them to keep them safely on at their end;

But I had to let them go;

My God, what a ride;

There were many who joined me on my Carousel ride;

They came and went;

Sometimes left by their own accord;

Sometimes flung off violently;

If only I could have held onto them more firmly;

But that is not the way of the Carousel;

The ride always ends;

My God, what a ride;

Oh, but the joy of placing others on my Carousel;

For sure they would call it their own with time;

And having helping hands hold those on who had not the strength;

And watching them be able to rise up on their own and mount another ride;

As I watched with eyes sometimes teary;

But with a heart that was full;

My God, what a ride;

How is it that this cacophony of music is dimming in my ears;

The bright and flashing lights are dimming, too;

I must try harder and harder to hold on;

This Carousel is so wondrous, I don’t want to get off;

I hold on tight and soak it all in;

My Carousel;

My God, what a ride.