Life is so full of ups and downs

that sometimes when you

stop for a moment

all you can see is

people looking down at you.

Or on you.

People on a high,

while you tredge on below

Eyes watering silently

Against the downhill wind.

The ropes around you

Are safety tethers

At least that’s what they said

But every once in a while

The mist clears

The tears dry

Lips pursed, you realise

The tethers are chains

In disguise

And with the tying

They took away

All your knives

Who can cut them now?

Cut across a jagged rock

Scraping away for life

Then halfway through

The doubt seeps in

Without the tethers

Won’t you fall through?

From midway up to far below

The steep drop to the valley of lows

Maybe the tethers were good after all

Holding you there

A comfort, a safe place

And with this doubt

You start to embrace

The poison that got away

As a potion of health.