SLIPPERY EDGES
     Charles L. Williamson

There is, I deem, a deeply strange,
And pitiless beauty beneath it all,
Supporting existence against
The nothingness of eternity.

At times, my thoughts in darkness
embrace reality's slippery edges- its
Ones and zeros, darting out and in,
Shifting form and moving on.

Out of this random dissonance,
An emergent melody unfolds,
With notes both faint and seductive-
A cadence of chance and oblivion.

Enchanted, I follow the music ever
Deeper, into a labyrinth of reflection.
Alone, tired, lost and stumbling,
My mindfalls echo in the shadows.

Logic and reason- my ball of twine,
Unwinds into the sunlit world behind me.
When I tire or falter or stop in fear,
I give the ball a tug… and its thin
lifeline of reason leads me home.