The Ferris Wheel

Written By: Hannah Tayla

A piece inspired by Gabeba Baderoon's poem "The Pen".

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14 days after we had our conversation I eagerly climbed onto the glowing Ferris wheel. Each compartment was a tacky coloured floating mushroom, a rickety childish ride, but an escapade swirling with excitement.

It was a warm, cloudless and brilliant evening With the familiar fair paraphernalia of sticky desserts and gaudy conversation, mingled with the smell of burning cigarettes and oily slap chips.

I could hear the crack, crack, crack of the lever cranking into motion the giant rotating ring, rocking its accompanying trinkets back and forth like a collection of pendulums, as the giant wheel followed its destined up- down course.

Each compartment squeaked and creaked under the weight of its gimcrack. We rose higher and higher into the sky with each grating introduction.

After a little while, my excitement dimmed to a cold wick with each sway and heavy rotation. 14 days later, within my mind, I still repeated the conversation. With each playback I wince at the putrid reciprocation A conversation that turned into an altercation, Later wiring my thoughts into a rotating mechanization Branded by the hot iron of sheer indignation.

I think about that day, the day I spiralled into the monotonous replay of every high and every low of that rendezvous.

As I rock back and forth into the motion of my imagination, My stomach lurches at every destructive word, As my eyes burn with regret at my irrevocable misinterpretation.