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