There’s a road out of Le Paz
three metres wide
between the top and bottom of two cliffs,
a ridge in the Andes.
People take this road everyday
and every year
hundreds plunge
into the Earth
on the way to work.

To live on a precipice
Is not sane,
but it is a balancing act
that somehow sustains us

We haven’t gone to war
with them Russians,
with them Chineses
because
we’d both wake up
in a ball of fire
if we did.

You go home,
eat suppers,
share hopes,
while whatever terror
might be for dessert

There’s a road out of Le Paz
three metres wide,
which is probably two metres wider
than most people’s lives.