This Is the Place You Might Be Able to Get Out At

Every link is scary.
Every rope is taught.
The smoothest moment bears
The burden of the knot.

The boat, if you make it,
Rides high in the water.
The clock, if you break it,
Can't not stop forever.

There's the panic, the sun.
There's the calm, the scramble.
There's the deck race you run.
There's the temptor's gamble.

The word for arriving
Is one, pure metaphor.
There's floating, surviving.
There's no actual shore.