All In

If you stand on the edge of a stream

With your back to the water and close

Your eyes, tipping your head to the sky

You feel as though you’re in the stream

Or falling toward it and you can’t help

But open your eyes to catch yourself

It is human nature, or maybe animals

Do this too, we can’t really ask them

And they don’t exactly cooperate in

Philosophical endeavors, which is

What separates us from them, I suppose

But we do this all the time in our

Everyday lives, we tip our heads back

And imagine we’re in the stream

Just to see how it would feel

Sometimes the stream is a new job

Or a potential new lover, sometimes

It’s the idea of having a child or even

Leaving a spouse behind, finally

But we usually open our eyes and

Catch ourselves, except sometimes

We just let ourselves fall in the river

We fall in and float down a little way

And if we’re lucky, the water takes us

To a new and happier place, a place

Full of love and sunshine and music

And food and art and a soft bed

To lay our heads at night and isn’t

It nice to think the world is a place

Where that kind of happiness can come

Just from tipping your head back

Closing your eyes, and letting go?