The 7th dwarf – what it means to be grumpy
The 7th apple – falling from heaven
The 7th whale under the bridge, again swimming to sea.
The troll under the bridge, with all of his excuses
and the balloonist from Kansas –
Hey, the Emerald City wasn’t my idea.

Seven excuses to run away from time
Seven sonatas written by a blind composer
Seven deaf musicians trying to
convert dots into music.
Seven dreams trying to tell their story

A seven-sided geometric figure –
polygon, heptagon, an illusion
hidden by seven cumulus clouds.
A seven-sided politician, shuffling cards,
changing the meaning of
every word we knew.

The geyser of time and dimension.
A telescope uncovering seven kinds of light
Seven questions that challenge reality,
yours and mine.

And now, Geppetto’s whale
swimming through the fairy tale of time
with a young boy in his belly –
or perhaps in a time capsule
hurling through space
to a newly discovered planet
with the hope it will be better there.

Diane Frank is author of eight books of poems, two novels, and a photo memoir of her 400 mile trek in the Himalayas. While Listening to the Enigma Variations: New and Selected Poems was published this year by Glass Lyre Press. She is editor of the bestselling anthology, Fog and Light: San Francisco through the Eyes of the Poets Who Live Here. She lives in San Francisco and plays cello in the Golden Gate Symphony. She has been a featured poet at the Walt Whitman Birthplace.