Look Up

A lesson in survival

I will only live if I look up.

The crisp side of a cliff, hanging off the edge

And if I look at the miles below me into blackness

I will drop.

I will give up.

A blue sky above me. It may be a mirage. It may only be a heat lamp on this science experiment.

I will heave my body across rocks that cut my ribs, struggle until muscle rips away from bone

Keep looking up at the sun that warms my face, grown blue with loneliness.

I do it for my son.

How easy to drop my weight into that sea, that beautiful sea, sickly sweet with poison.

If I hang my head, I drop.

So there's nothing to do

But look up.