age was once when

we were not afraid

to look down from

teetering high or

on the brink of the end

or the beginning, stop
or start, what the hell

anything would do

and we were not afraid

to stare down

barbed wire consequences

of cutting through

unassaulted by experience

swimming naked in the ocean of

what we thought we knew

but that's a shadow

from a sun long

set now the evening's

hunger has laid

the table and the worry

thirst is enough

to keep some of

us bolted to the well.