the trouble with binary thinking
and wisdom communicated is
they say nothing about how
holding on is an inch from fallen in,
that the difference between
ok and destitute
is slim and fickle
and luck is little more
than a rigged chance
the days
stacked up just so
aren’t a floating stair
but one stake after the next
stabbed
into indifferent slabs
of matter,
with the gauge equidistant
between tragedy and dread
you have to break the hours down
until your grace is only a second of thanks
and then gone.

– Jim Trainer