Frozen In Time Poem by Louie Vizcarra

Standing on a mesa gazing over the land
life was lovely in the sun.
The breeze was gentle, the warmth endearing
the grass and trees were beautiful.
Suddenly and without warning, the sun began to scorch
the wind became oppressively hot
the grass and bushes burst into a raging wildfire.
I reached to drink my water
and instead poured scorpions into my parched mouth.
Spitting them out and desperately looking up at the sun
I saw a boulder
hurtling toward me at a deadly speed.
Growing closer and growing larger
it blocked out the sun and aimed for my head.
With the panic of imminent death
I ran frantically for the edge of the mesa
and with seconds left before impact
crumbling and moaning from hopeless misery
I contemplated a decision.
Die by a boulder from the sky
unwillingly crushed flat on the top of a mesa
my body burned to ashes, made into dust by the blazing fire-
or jump off the cliff
and die by my own hand, thrown on the rocks below.
The intensity of the decision was overwhelming.
With the moment critical and life in a flash
time suddenly stopped and everything held suspended.
And as if in some supernatural twilight zone
only the panic and the unbearable weight and anxiety remained.
There I stayed on the edge of a cliff trapped inside my own emotions
everything fresh, never subsiding, forever overbearing
held motionless, loathsome and despised
an outcome never decided, a verdict never reached.
With time never resuming
I stayed there for an eternity in an ungraspable impossible moment
and longed for a breeze to blow my immovable body over the edge
so I could end this miserable state of being and
finish the incredible burden of panic and a choice I never got to make
never finishing my first step toward death.