the prefix of words

 
 
sometimes

you can’t look forward
 
 
 
 
–peril of arrows

affront, &

embers

(no bed for birds)

afoot, & hole

(of it)

a fright

obfuscated by spot fire smoke,

broken flint,

and raining ash–

and you oughtn’t look backward

–salt shadows and hindsight

loom & leer

stretching in-form

willful

infinite

and

inflexible—

wrathful

in No sense the best way through

woeful

this checking back for what comes next

(even when)

looking inward

is pure vertigo.

Imploding singularity

spiraling

physical anomaly

of inner tipping

dizzying

the weight of tectonic bone shift

disrupting

the character of

Life’s middle

disquieting

to state what’s under

(skin)

–though sometimes it’s

the outward

misconstrued

the tangible

misrepresented

the visible

miscued

at which time you can

only look up

­word

define: overhead

with or without

Word

up.

shoulders squared

up.

hands swinging free

up.

no supplication

up

–ward

is sometimes the only way

to see.