If you remain on the edge
of the point overlooking 
the vast space filled with
what you don’t know and

remain unable to bring yourself
to look down and perhaps
lessen your ignorance 

if only by straining to find
a tiny break in the clouds below you
so that you might possibly
catch a glimpse 
of the bottom of what
seemed at first glance to be
a bottomless pit, how

are we supposed to believe
anything you claim for your own
growth and maturity?
You should just 

admit your complete lack
of interest in, or your own 
paralyzing fear of, the 

unknown in you, even the unknown
that has in fact been revealed to you
by others so often, the unknown
you refuse to know for whatever
reason you may provide, real or
imagined, falsified or true;
then step off 

and let the space have you, let yourself
vanish into it 
like a ball

maybe to land and then
bounce out and be saved
if you’re lucky or blessed;

to be honest, though,
we won’t be looking for you;

self-care being what it is in these times,
we have our own cliffs to conquer,
our own fatal falls to avoid,

our own clouds to pierce.