Poem: Dangling

Dangling

I was hanging from the rope
for so long, I cannot say
the time it took, cannot say
in seconds or minutes
but can be certain
it was hours for me,
even if only ten minutes
that it lasted, it was hours,
dangling there, hanging,
stuck, incapable of any progress,
holding so tight,
any slip a potential last,
just dangling for ever,
for so long that even now
I might be there too,
it may be I am still stuck,
that I am there now,
even if I am here,
I may not have made it back,
I do not know, but 
each morning I find 
the dark red of friction burns
in each of my palms.

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