Competing Visions of the Future (a poem)

1.
I've walked in circles my whole life—
wondered if they shrink only smaller,
if movement becomes pale—

tracing faint rounds back and forth between
office and studio apartment,
Coin-Up Laundromat and Mike's Burgers,
1st National Bank and Rooney's premium dive bar

where I make pinprick spheres,
poke holes in peanut shells with toothpicks—
at last only sit on one stool and try to flirt with one waitress
who is half my age
and unattractive

2.
On the 35th floor of the Bonaventure Hotel we sit in a rotating lounge
slowly encircling Los Angeles—
outside, lights streak and blur into colored lines that
fade out like firework tails

We watch headlights bounce,
bright angels of possibility
gaze with glowing eyes

Moving in circles, she says, is divine—
like concentric orbits of an asteroid

Moving in circles, she says, is real—
like layers of an onion

Perhaps love's true sensation—
is not dizziness
but the recovery from dizziness