Under My Sofa

Edge

He stands broken on the brink, on the edge of a blade
He could fall either side, but the decision is made
Powers above know if he'll succeed or fail
He stands on train tracks, but he's off the rails

Racing destiny, sucking in desperate breaths
Shuffling along the knife's razor edge
It slices into both soles and soul
But nothing he does could change the die's weighted roll

He tries everything he can but it's pointless now
The decision is made, all it will allow
Is the choice of a movement that's cursed to be wrong
A final wish granted lets him hum an old song

It's not even his favourite, but it enters the frame
As he teeters on the board of a god's grisly game
Left or right
Black or white

Maybe the choice should be clear
His feet are crisscrossed with cuts, his heart with fear
A decision to make, he must pick a side
But he shuffles forwards along the sharpest of lines

Fall to the side, the side that will be wrong
He'll end up in a place that he'll never belong
He can't go either way, there's too much to lose
So he carries on forwards and don't notice the ruse

He didn't pick either side as they wanted him too
He shuffled on forwards until his feet wore through
Cut down to stumps by the edge of a knife
Stuck in the place where fate cast his life

As the poet his destiny fell to my hands
And I cursed him to one dimensional lands
To shuffle along a line where space and time fail
I wrote him a coffin and hammered home every nail

***

I'm a huge fan of edginess, as I'm sure you're aware.

I think I've used this metaphor before, but I've never expanded on it until now, so this poem is basically the extension of what it means when I reference somebody standing on the edge of a knife blade.

It's a situation where there are two options you have to take, and not picking either leaves you the worst off you could be.

Also I originally wrote this in first person, then changed it and added the final stanza. Ergo, I'm the higher power I referred to earlier in the poem, and I think that ties up much more nicely.

Alex xxx