lashed umbilical to the Wheel
we revolve through life 

years pass surfing circles rolling water
earth air fire elementally around
past the 4 stubborn animals

where the snake is your elevator operator going down
jackal-headed Anubis rides glides curved up 
to a higher vicinity 
where the angel of our destiny 
witnesses your rise to fame, heavenly glory

or downfall to obscurity
crushed at the bottom like the sacrificed king
to summon and ensure the coming of spring

you have to spin to win     
luck be the Lady Sphinx who smiles
from atop her perch at apogee
looks down on our whirlings
watches the high become lowly

until we rotate down, 
and water-wheel drown

seren dip-
ity

only to go up

to meet those beneath us 
who next will become us 

been down so long
it looks like up to me

how does it feel to be all alone
a complete unknown
on the turning wheel
but you never are 
everyone is rolling along with you too

fate bitch-slaps you down
as you come around
or raises you up notorious acclaimed
to win a prize in the carnival game 

with many maybe friends
posting likes or tweets         
or those fateful ones you’ll
chance meet on the street 

synchroni-
city

life is like a rolling zone
an eternal spin class too fast
roundabout no way to dismount

the unicycleverse
recycling you around the bend
can’t foresee portend its end
the river is flowing tide turning
you can’t step in it again

returning dizzy            
keep your date with destiny
doing the fairy reel  
lashed umbilical to the Wheel ….

[Lorraine Schein is a New York writer and poet. Her work has appeared in VICE Terraform, Strange Horizons, Scientific American, and Michigan Quarterly, and in the anthologies Wild Women and Tragedy Queens: Stories Inspired by Lana del Rey & Sylvia Plath. The Futurist’s Mistress, her poetry book, is available from Mayapple Press. Her book, The Lady Anarchist Cafe, is out now from Autonomedia.]