September 15-21, 2018

Ivy Lea

it is enormous, this thing before me

immense above far restless waves

unbent beneath relentless load

I am so very small upon it

dwarfed by enormities

intangible threat inhabits sturdy reassurance

danger strolls hand-in-hand with safety

death greets life along the abyss

silent voices insistent cry

“It would be so easy”

and it would be

easy

so very easy

it wouldn’t be very hard at all

emptiness calls with gravitic insistence

brilliant depths tempt surrender of steel embrace

infinity’s suddenly nearer door beguiles

white knuckled, I clutch at the rail

as far from the edge as can be

Beth and I were walking along the Ivy Lea Bridge in Gananoque

on our way home from a vacation in New York (city & state);

this poem was my response to the insistent pull of the void

and my desperate clutching of the hand-rail, and walking

as far as I could possibly be from the edge of an abyss

which was relentlessly pulling me into its emptiness.

My knuckles were truly white as my desire to live

fought desperate with the void’s call to death.