The following is a collaborative poem written at the Spontaneuous Writing Booth during the Share the Word event hosted at the Central Library in Madison, WI on Friday, May 5. I was not one of the spontaneous poets but I gave them the first two lines that propelled the poem to the final 5 lines that Dana Maya graciously contributed.

-Hanz Olson

Railstrick and force umbrella

Made up for the lost art of

Nothingness–who knows where

The time goes & we’ll be with you now.

Shut the umbrella–drops have stopped,

Step out from under–your face alight

Your face all right, nothing “lite,”

But heavy as the night, dark turning white

The skeleton-in-a-skirt is an

Umbrella, its ribcage extended, proud

Upward, small dome, cathedral for

One small prayer: may I walk safe

Under this sky.

Composed by Molly Wesling, Ted Highsmith, Susan Podebrasky, Dana Maya and myself.