What if is a wasteland that sucks the hope from your bones

An empty wilderness absent from any map you can draw

A forest of shadow and doubt that leaves you in perpetual wondering

Always second guessing if that turn was the right turn

Or if it will lead you towards the very thing you’re trying avoid.

What if is the edge of a cliff over a canyon of despair

The unrealistic kind that has no bottom, and no impact point

For the thoughts that fall forever into the nothing of the future

Stark and bleak and bare of any light.

What if is the tide that rises around your feet as you sink

Into that desperate darkness of the unknown

The rushing wave that pulls you out to the sea of your grief

And leaves you stranded in the water of doubt

Spitting salt as you try to stay afloat and swim to shore.

What if is the worst use of your imagination

It is the thief of joy and the death of gratitude

Because is paralyzes you in the moment where you find yourself

And whispers the lie that there is no way forward.