UP 4 LADDERS

UP 4 LADDERS

Life laid a board beneath me,
With numbers in each square,
Four ladders touched the heavens,
While snakes lay waiting there.

I threw the dice of dreaming,
It rolled across my years,
I moved through hope and heartache,
Through laughter and through tears.

The first ladder was childhood,
I climbed with grazed-up knees,
The world was full of wonder,
And wishes grew on trees.

The second one was loving,
A man held out his hand,
He said the top was waiting
Inside our promised land.

The third was made of poetry,
Each rung became a line,
I climbed it with my stories,
Those little dreams were mine.

The fourth shone gold above me,
I nearly touched my bliss,
Then heard behind my shoulder
A long and wicked hiss.

The snake wore human features,
A smile, a coat, a name,
He looked like what I wished for,
But love was just his game.

He wound himself around me,
Then knocked away my feet,
I fell past all four ladders,
And landed in defeat.

I landed bruised and breathless
On square thirteen below,
The snake believed he’d finished me,
He did not know me though.

I stood and dusted moonlight
From places it had stuck,
Then picked the dice up smiling,
And threw myself some luck.

A snake can steal your footing,
Then celebrate your fall,
But I still own the courage
To climb beyond it all.

Up four ladders, down I fell,
The serpent gave a hiss,
But snakes can keep their poison,
They cannot steal my bliss.