✨ Uncharted

If I had the choice...

Uncharted

If I had the choice
would I pay the price?
The life I have now
for the one I lost to get here?

I doubt I would have braved the trade
if offered the exchange

For the sea one must sail
from one life to the other
is treacherous and deadly
and no one makes it across unmarred

Shipwrecked, though—set adrift
only one choice was given
to row against the tide
toward a shattered shore
or to set out through the storm
on an uncharted course
with faith the world is round
and the stars to guide us home

—Bethany Lee

“Uncharted” is taken from Etude for Belonging: poems for practicing courage and hope. Copyright © 2021 by Bethany Lee. Used by permission of Fernwood Press. All rights reserved. www.fernwoodpress.com. Photo by Resource Datatbase, Unsplash license.