Below is something I posted 2 years ago, on August 29, 2006, to be exact. It’s not really a poem, not a story, just something that went through my mind when I was going through…something. I called it “Picture” because it started out as a feeling that became a thought that became a vivid image in my head. Unfortunately, drawing is not within my abilities so I tried to describe the image in words as best as I can…

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I stand here at the edge of the cliff.

There is nothing; only the calm, the quiet, and myself in the stillness, keeping my balance, as I let time decide my fate.

The soft glow of twilight seems to reflect my own soul.

The source of the light, the sun, is a friend that vows to follow my direction.

Its presence gives me comfort in this eerie world where we are both suspended between the rise and the fall.

I give the sun a little smile and ask it not to leave for I have always been afraid of darkness.

The warmth of reassurance spreads within me though it was not quite enough to settle the tides of my heart.

I dare not move.

The littlest step backward can send me running back to the weakness that has lead me here in the first place, and the slightest bend forward can send me crashing down into the unknown.

I keep a level gaze and stare out the sandy plains; they seem endless.

I long to be saved, though there is no real danger.

I long for the hand that belongs to whom I am afraid had become a stranger to reach for me, to ask for my return.

But that is not a choice for me to make.

I ask my friend, “What awaits down there? Death?”

The sun is patient and says, “Only learning.”

I feel time as it wraps around everything and as it pushes forward, not cruel but unstoppable.

I stand still.

I close my eyes and I wait.