(The following is Urvashi's response to the preceding poems written by Celeste)

pinnacle about to pop!

Celeste,
running us all through the fine mesh sieve of her mind,
the hungry beak of her heart
opening us up.
she watches us skeptically
seeking
motivation,
deprivation,
patterns
explaining us to a place of safety,
a place of comprehension
exactly setting us
upon the chessboard of her inner world
laid out
over hills,
seething volcanoes
rushing rivers

how do you keep it all straight?

i feel all exposed.
i think she's got me posed up on some pinnacle here
with a rapid beneath me
clanking, wheeling stars with white teeth above
and her below watching to see what I'll do next.

let me down Celeste!

i'm a middle-aged lady with two sons,
a floppy baby belly,
a scolitic back,
a merely human heart
with its long history of passion and pain
like anyone else.

i want to say to her face
"please
let me be
just anyone else
Celeste!

there are perks!

then you could be yourself!

i like you just that way.

as yourself."