Red

One step,

then another.

Beauty above—

a temptress.

Earth below—

unyielding.

Hurdle after hurdle,

I whiplash

between pleasure and pain,

a beautiful metaphor

for the way we live.

Rings of red

wrap around my feet,

a vortex of past dreams

spiraling around the woman I’ve become—

the one who realized some,

failed at others,

and still climbs the rocks

toward the best ones

yet to come.