Old Guy Under the Rides with a Wrench

And to what extent are limitations
Conducive still to creativity?
Where does the curve on your roller coaster

Plunge down off the inverted U to Earth?
Middle, middle, middle Aristotle—
Each wave has a crest; no crest’s ever still.

How’s it hanging? How’s anyone keep it
Way up there in the middle of the air?
Engines and gravity, belts and buckles

Trying to hold it safely together,
Hurling your limitations through constraints,
You lose, and you lose, and you get better,

Going ever faster than you ever
Could go before, before you hit the floor.