The Moment Between, a poem by Chet Nickerson

Chet Nickerson

The Moment Between

drop back

into the time lapse
in the moment

between

the tip

& the top

the floor

& the flop

the nix &

the naught &

the done bought the farm &

the come to no harm from the
oh-so-charmed life & the edge of the knife, the
love of a wife & the marital strife the
remaining in light or the fight or the flight
through the darkest of nights of the hollowed out souls
of the hole within wholes of the holy of holies
where in the blink of an eye comes a gasp or a sigh
though the shrug tries belie any anguishing cry
lest the burning be gone & the love just a song &
the risk just a ride on a birthright that lied
every moment it cried of a future belied

by long nightless sleeps & bright wakeless dreams
of a rhythm in schism in the one & the other
& the all & the fall & the call & the pall-
bearing death as the mother of time & for every
moment by moment being here now & then
every breathing now ending speaks the sin within living

for the time is the crime is the crime is the time–
lapsing moment by moment into movement by omens
of stalling & falling & calling appalling
            the tip & the top &
                the floor & the flop &
                    the nix & the naught &
                        the one & the all

calling

moment

by moment

between.

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