Threshold

on the cusp of living

and of not quite dying

this threshold life

between breaths we take

knowing nothing

in this world

is taken or given freely

between a solar conflagration 

and the permafrost of 

Neptune's gelid moons

between you and me

and the blanket we pull tighter

in this narrowest of windows

not quite knowing how 

to step beyond or back to what has been

between those that are gone

and those on the threshold

of knowing and of not quite knowing

between "by the time you read this"

and the flash mob of headlamps

outside in the lane

between the sump oil of midnight

and the cool fragility of dawn 

this threshold life

May 2023