Ride

By Kim Walters

This restlessness longs to jump without looking,
grab the next free ride
on steel rails stretched smooth and fast
over the jagged underlay.

This restlessness wants impossible answers,
assurances, guarantees that cannot be extended
no matter how long
how deep
how shallow the breath becomes.

This restlessness must trust
and remember:
to jump takes a courage that has already been proven
long before that first accelerated step,
before that desperate, hopeful, reaching hand.
It endures and will carry
even when the track veers.