Adams Morgan - A Poem

Tentatively, and hopefully,
I step upon the next rung of the ladder.
Yet this step, this hope,
was taken prematurely.
In a blink the air escapes my lungs
as the grass rushes up to meet me.
It was a slip I’ve slipped a hundred times,
but the shock still leaves you breathless, hurt, and angry
as it always does, and as it always will.
Laying flat on back, staring up at my ladder;
The numbness entombs me while anger consumes me.

I suck in a deep breath
With all its poisons, with all its life.
I blink away the stinging tears in my eyes,
And I check my bleeding heart.
It doesn’t appear it will fall completely apart.
Delicately, stitch this bleeding heart,
and lock away my memories of you
with others who knocked me from the heights before.
Slowly and timidly I again rise to my feet,
stare up the endless sky,
tentatively, and hopefully,
I step upon the first rung of the ladder.