Poised Precariously

Always looking at life
from the fringe
and not speaking
his longings aloud,
he never thought himself
worthy to claim
such a piece
of divine providence
as was edging into
his line of sight.

Illuminated by torches
of palm fronds
as the ocean gnawed
at the ramparts,
he lay in the starlight,
listening
to the wind as it howled.
He entered the Liminal Space
between worlds,
where everything
is stripped away.

It was always
his secret longing
to participate in such wonder,
to experience the restless surge
of the universe
in the moonlight,
listening
to the music of the waves.

He somehow now knew
we are born being watched
by the capricious whims
of the goddess
as she gives us
tools for understanding
how to live precariously,
poised between
catastrophes,
when sensing
the winds of war.

Such knowledge was not
what he had longed for.