A follow up to the poem "God is a House," also a tribute to the book House of Leaves. If you have not read this book, please please do, it's amazing.
it’s hard to imagine, I’ll admit
a staircase so astonishing
who could have thought, something so trivial
could mean all the world
I was afraid when you left
when you climbed down, so ill prepared
you thought you had it in you
you just didn't know what was down there
I cried when you fell
I cried as you burned each page
I cried as your light went out
I cried as it all went away
“it’s just a staircase,” I told myself
“just a stupid staircase”
but I was wrong, wasn’t I?
it was there before us
how can I look down into the abyss below
not expecting it to gaze back up, perhaps
even answer my questions?
but I have none
sometimes I wish I could fall
like you, as that rope snapped
everything changed in that instant for you
and it was unfair, this is why I cried
when I remember that it was all a dream,
I feel the soft dim glow of sunlight brush across my cheek
the warm stale Californian air
outside my locked room
but I am not you, no matter how much I try
in my passing, nothing will change
nobody will remember me
but they’ll always remember you, and the staircase
Johnny’s coming home