The icy weather these past few days has got me thinking about how much extreme cold and extreme heat are like each other. You know what I mean if you have ever been exposed to the bitter cold for a while: your skin takes on a fiery sensation owing to the dryness coupled with the cold. That in turn made me wonder if the real dichotomy is between the middle and the two extremes, for the two extremes tend to blend into one.
There’s something very odd about
My journey on this street:
Its absolutely cozy in the middle;
But if I wander to the right,
I feel a burning heat,
Like walking on an unforgiving griddle.
I venture left and there, I feel
The razor bite of cold,
It cracks my skin, and makes me gasp and wheeze;
And if I linger long, I’ll meet
Those poison daggers rolled
In fire, forged within the wretched freeze.
And so I hasten to return
To where its warm and bright;
The middle of the road is where I’ll stay,
Away from where the scalding touch
Of ice and fire smite
A man who wants to be upon his way,
Extremely in the middle, if I may.