she knew the sea well
but the sea didn't know her at all
and often tried to drown her

her rescuers came in droves
swimming all kinds of exotic strokes
but the life they saved was not a happy one

when they laid her on the pebbles
and resuscitated her
she was grateful
not for what they'd done
but for what they thought they'd done

* the midwife fainted

the midwife fainted and was carried from the ward
with an electrical storm raging beneath her uniform

her landmarks were illuminated in flashes
her pinnacles and her steeples sharp
against her starched sky

herself went into highspeed labour
and gave birth to a baby ball of lightning
neither male nor female
which floated through the maternity wing
pursued by orderlies with buckets of darkness

it's just

it's just a joke, said Zeno
it's just a justajoke
it's just a justajustajoke
and so on

and so on these rungs he climbed
but no-one else followed
everyone else thinking them unsafe

and so he was alone in space
which was funny enough
but a little too peaceful for comfort -
he needed some friction

and so he rubbed his backside against the atmosphere
producing a delightful shower of shooting stars
which everyone down below
who happened to be looking up
mistook for meteors