When the Strat-O-Stat Ride Broke Loose and Sailed into the River
A lifetime of craving
wings, to sail
smoothly over the flat prairie.
Watching a city receding quickly
into the dusk.
This could have been their dream.
Two men in a metal boat
moving without oars
through the wet summer air.
Their faces in wonder; at first
the flying makes sense.
But no rudder, no wheel
to guide them on their journey.
In the moment before
the cable snapped
the two felt their breath, tight
in their chests, straining
against the shabby strap.
As children gaily screamed
no one really thought of death,
but of the ride soon over
and the barkers on the Midway beckoning.
Groaning, the joints uncoupled
and the car glided away.
The crowd gaped at the sky,
open-mouthed and silent.
The carneys quiet and grim.
Only the sound of carousels and calliopes
accompanied the flight.
Before the cold splash
their hearts must have stopped
in mercy to spare
their frail bodies the impact
of this last moment on Earth.
Editor’s Statement, by Jonah Meyer, Poetry Editor
Krasno’s poem paints a striking, hauntingly beautiful narrative, delightfully bizarre in the way in which it unfolds … potent imagery and purposeful diction underscore the speaker’s perception, unveiling an extra-ordinary—if not horrific—portrait of a Midway mishap. The poet’s surreal, dreamlike vignette imagines a rollercoaster-car (two men in tow, “their faces in wonder”) dancing its metal machinery high across the carnival-skyline. The reader—like the carnival-goers themselves—bears witness to something magical, out-of-this-world, and entirely heartbreaking, two lives presumably lost to the cold water below.
