From the collection And Don’t Come Back, published in 2021.
Knife Edge
i.
Think of what is next.
So when the stroke of the knife comes
sharp and quick and indifferent
it is easy to understand.
It had no choice, after all,
did it? A knife does what a knife does.
ii.
Think back to what was.
Before. When the knife lay
gleaming in the sun
amoral as the smell of roses
the sound of traffic in the distance
the taste of a grain of salt
the crack of a snapped bone.
Remember. All that the knife does
is what it does.
Yours is the hand that decides.
iii.
It is only a few steps
from that place where you are
to the place where
you should never have gone.
But you knew that already
didn’t you? Don’t be in such a hurry now.
It’s not far. It won’t take long at all.
10/18/20
Claudia McGill Writes Poetry, Did You Know That? 
I like these. So dark. This could be the introduction to a larger work.
Thank you.
You’re welcome.
This poem seem very appropriate for this time of year. I love the ominous atmosphere and the sense of things escalating as the poem builds.
Thank you. I am not sure where this came from but once again I am always interested in the segments of time as something develops – when it’s starting up, when it is finished, and all the gradations where some of the story is known and much is not.