poems || Jeff Harrison

The Roller Coasters of Phillis Wheatley

ON BEING BROUGHT FROM AFRICA TO AMERICA

The Kingda Ka at Six Flags Great Adventure (Jackson,
New Jersey) is 464 feet & 3118 feet long, with a drop
of 428 feet. a top speed of 128 miles per hour, Kingda
Ka's passengers, handfast meadowlarks born for the sake
of falling between fingers, are not black-thorn, nor oh
awake they are from some indomitable hue

*

GOLIATH OF GATH

The Top Thrill Dragster goes from zero to
120 mph in 4 seconds. at zero mph it's a hand
inactive and unwary next to a threat'ning maw -

a wounded, sick, or aging brown bat inches away
from an attentive grey-striped cat

*

TO S.M. A YOUNG AFRICAN PAINTER, ON SEEING
HIS WORKS FOR THE FIRST TIME

Thunder Dolphin passes thru the middle
of a ferris wheel, and, like a poem, is
within the horizon of universal apology with

pagoda abruptness; her (T.D.) money all workable,
a second-best peep otherwise or, even, mosque

*

A HYMN TO THE MORNING

Steel Dragon 2000 is the tallest
coaster to use a traditional chain
lift (due to the lift hill's length
2 chains are used) & cost
$50 million, more than a Goya

do you know how Goya died?
mad in a dark wet house
he drew on the walls
every monkey on a tree
was his story

he began losing the brain
misantropo suddenly
he refugee in his house

*

TO HIS EXCELLENCY GENERAL WASHINGTON

Gravity Pleasure Switchback Railway, built by
LaMarcus Adna Thompson, was the first roller
coaster in the United States (roller coasters
originated in Russia, then made their way to
France, stealing away under cover of darkness)

5 cents a ride

a nickel
could ne'er help unknot any loftier prize

*

ON IMAGINATION

The Russian Mountains opened in 1804.

The Russian Mountains was
the first roller coaster in Paris.

The Russian Mountains would
dump most its carriages as it
carried them to the bottom.

The Russian Mountains slew
many lovely courtesans.

*

NIOBE IN DISTRESS FOR HER CHILDREN
SLAIN BY APOLLO, FROM OVID'S METAMORPHOSIS,
BOOK VI. AND FROM A VIEW OF THE PAINTING
OF MRS. RICHARD WILSON

Millennium Force was the first roller coaster
to utilize a magnetic braking system. like

most roller coasters, it is taller than the statue
of liberty. golden the pace of Millennium Force --

golden the pace of all roller coasters,
silver speaks the water to their eyes

they move as a glass stream - the grass
has burned down & the water gets dry

in love they are with this short planet

sunwards you streams to what sunshine? I'm
fearful that my pace could be thus golden