A Hair's Breadth - A Hare's Breath

.
shadows
cast by a hot bare bulb
in night's sweltering limbo
lured me to the edge
in sight of "something other"

despite the heat
the limbo, lonliness,
and general malaise
I dared not step into this "other"

a step, I am sure,
that would have been
the final step as me,
the me I know as myself

I stepped back
...no, jumped back!
startled at how close
this "other" was
and is
still