Poetry Month #5: Perspective

I found the NaPoWriMo prompt a little daunting today, and it felt restrictive to the little inspiration I have right now, so I decided not to do it. This is what I ended up with. I've been thinking about the idea of perspective recently related to the COVID-19 crisis and how it's impacted my life and the lives of those around me.

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Perspective Day #5

The step ladder beckons from the room’s dead center

A skylight caressing its dark and sturdy wood

It casts a ring of light to call you up out of the shadow

Illuminating just enough to show you should

How cheerfully some waltz toward the waiting ladder

And weightlessly ascend to see above the gloom

How breezily they clutch at you and try to drag you

Expecting that the view will all your hurt subsume

Unwillingly you stumble under their persistence

But what are eyelids for unless for fear of heights

You need not see with clarity atop the viewpoint

If wallowing in darkness is preferable to light

The step ladder offers a rung for any taker

The skylight’s penetration can diminish pain

Bequeathing proportion in exchange for self pity

But only by desiring can the sight be gained