The Fall

If I give up

This will be the death of me

Eyes closed, I tip backwards into the breezeless sea

The tides seize me and you watch from the beach

As I drift far away beyond all reach

Sink into the depths of comfort, drown in forgotten sorrows

Cruising with the flow of fear and retreat

To a land so distant there lies no distance 

From the knife-edged urchins or the thorny reefs

You will never see me.

The sea waves to me invitingly

Like a soft blanket ready to catch you when you fall

And I gaze longingly at it's rhythmic movements

Because it looks so easy

To let go of the vines cutting into my skin

To dwell in the caves of safety

And breathe in the relief within

The fall always looks so simple

But the choice never does.

Because if I give up

The heavens would know

The skies would mourn with their rains and rainbows

The lands would tremble and the earth would quake

And the cynical hell beneath our feet would laugh till its dying day

But worst of all

Is how the sun would disappear

Turning fairweather days into sleepless nights

Leaving all things living to join me in my path

And I wouldn't want that.

So I choose to step back from the edge of the water

But you, watching from the beach

Would you have let me succumb to the currents?

Would you have let them sweep me away?

You could have called my name

Pulled me to your side

Told me all about the dangers of the ocean,

The regrets of those who wander to far out from shore

But you didn't.

And you didn't have to.

So you watch me,

As I sit on the rocks with my legs over the surface 

My toes nearly dipping in

My eyes watching the horizon

The sea awaiting my return.

It stays for me,

And I dream of a life where I watched chains of futures swim into the past

A life where I lived in clear blue waters

A life where I chose to fall.