Please, don’t step down for me,

Or any other creature,

From your tall pedestal

Of wisdom,

/

For, by the time that you

Would reach my lowly world,

I know, and you know, too,

That I would be long gone;

/

Imagine sitting by the river

And watching

Scarlet leaves

Drift quickly past you

/

In one of them,

Running from drowning,

Can you not recognize

My daily-aging face?

/

Can you, from high up

On your throne of knowledge,

Not see the end

Towards which I am rushing,

/

Dragged underwater and

Pushed back up by the currents,

Thinking it’s freedom to exists

In a shape-shifting cage?

/

Do not step down for me,

Or any other creature,

Into this icy river

Of oblivion:

/

Even if you could ever reach me,

I’d simply crumble in your hands