The man held out to me an orange vial,
Or perhaps the fluid within was blue; I don't recall.
He told me quietly of it all,
The benefits as well of its dear trials.

He told me it would wipe from my mind the hurtful ghosts of futures that never would come to pass,
Stop them from floating through my mind and darkening my present,
Blind my heart to the bittersweet calling tug they sent,
So I could best ignore their sweet harrass.

He told me of the damage the substance would resolve,
Mend cracked heart from aorta to vena cava inferior,
Stop the leak of water to the exterior,
And many problems within me it would solve.

I thought upon the burden on my minds,
Hardware and software of many sorts braided through,
The things that the power to bind me had been given to,
And which cruelly forced many a day to uselessly unwind.

I contemplated on this abyss whose edge I was found on,
And contemplated there my course -
Take the draught, and there find some sort of recourse
And risk hurt therefrom, not to mention my misgivings I found my thoughts upon,

No matter how laudable my trusted friends and advisors thought the choice;
Or I could refuse, take the bitterer pill on my own,
Reject the easier, perhaps better path that I'd been shown,
And force myself to learn to fix this broken machine with its own voice.

Poised between two jagged imperfect alternatives I am now here,
And the price for my indecision grows ever more dear.