Her feet dangled from the ledge,
she knew she probably shouldn’t be up there,
but how could she not be?
Everything had encouraged her.
From the cool air on her bare arms,
To all of the beauty of the park they were in.
The clear water in the stream below her told her that
This,
This is what beauty in its purest form,
Looked like.
The ledge from where she was sitting had called to her.
It had tempted her with words like,
“Up here is dangerous, but it’s worth it”
“Up here you could fall, but isn’t this beauty worth the risk?”
“Up here is as high as you can go in this park,
Don’t you want to be at the top?”
And with the sweet words of the ledge’s temptation
She knew she did.
Her friends told her it was dangerous, maybe she shouldn’t.
Her friends said that the view from the ground is just as pretty as it is up there.
Her friends saw she had started climbing,
And she was already almost to the top.
The ledge had not lied to her
Sitting at the top,
It was breathtaking, unlike anything she had ever imagined
The creek went on for miles, the trees reflected off of the water
If she leaned over enough she could almost see her own reflection…
“Okay come down now!” her friends beckoned.
“No stay! Look closer, just a little more.”
The ledge edged on
She leaned,
Her friends screamed,
And she fell.
At the bottom she could have sworn she heard the ledge laughing with delight
“I guess that’s the thing, isn’t it?” the girl thought
“the top is the best feeling you can imagine,
But when you fall,
You fall,
and hit hard.”