Choose

Things should fit like how the gentle rain
caresses sweet honeysuckle, yielding
to electric dew spirals which lapse
into slumber, as the dense ground
defers, slips, melts away, creating an abyss
of tangerine lemon auburn,
now void of bleak existence,
a place where falling is continuous
and unrelenting, as if in a vacuum.

It's not death, or even rebirth,
or even something to fear,
but at brilliant meteoric speeds,
you either embrace
what you do not know,
or reject the reality,
as it taunts you with its dizzying
somersaults and spins.

Until you face it directly,
the connection you felt
remains hidden, even coveted,
stuck between midnight freedom
and twilight wonder. No, there are no monsters
under the bed sheets, nor spiders lurking
in that hallway of arms, the ones
that always reach, grab, seize,
and the river that runs
through splitting hairs,
the one that pleads allegiance
to the most convincing
unconvincing reality is seeking
to find you a way out if you pay attention.

So the question is: what's more important?
Taking unseen, unknown, uncalculated risks?
Or inhabiting the safe, the stable,
the predictable?

Either way, there is no safety net,
nothing to catch you,
from your own choices,
There is no judgment
but their could be repercussions
in mind and spirit, if you reject
that knot in your stomach,
burning with faithfulness.
But, if you listen, but truly listen,
rather than vanishing in your indecision,
the specter is simply invisible, transparent.

Now is the time to reveal secret
codes, trust sacred confidantes, pay the piper,
unscramble puzzle pieces. Or you may opt
for the foreseeable: security.

It's up to you.
And only you.
Choose!

(C) Michael Wayne Holland 2011