This Is Not Poem by Spencer James Manchester

Simple.

Steps, but flying
further into falling
down

Steps ever onward, down, up,
left, right,
wrong
and every other direction this might chase.

I know not its face,

but its structure-
not unfamiliar to my heart.

Alas, my eyes

so easily lose their way
in attempts to chart
this experience
as some... fertile landscape,

yielding opportunity-like
hesitation so
constantly regifts itself
into my trembling hands...

I am fearful, firstly, and cautious-

Withholding, like
my lips:

forever
neglecting
the silence hanging
between them and your own.