tight rope in poetry

it’s not as easy as
choosing between the
darkness and the light
I wish it was that easy
that life wasn’t more
complicated than that
one simple choice but
nothing is that binary

too much light can burn
the line between the suntan
and malingering skin tumors
is more indistinct and deadly
than Schrodinger’s wildest dreams
we need the light to see and yet
it can blind us just as badly as
the darkness if we let it

in small doses too
the dark can cool
the dark can give
us a place to rest
if we don’t let it
rule us and don’t
live in it forever

either extreme is death
all extremes are death
by ice or death by fire
death is death however you
come about its reckoning
always out there beckoning
you to succumb to the edges
to the darkness or the light
to give in to the easy fight
to go right off the ledge

I wish that it was as easy
as strolling into the sun
but that’s the path of cinders
passions blazing the tinder
and pretty soon you’re gone
in the temperate space between
we have a chance to still move on