THE DEPTHS (II)

I thought I'd reached the depths

that place deeper and darker

and more dire

than any other

and that things would finally turn around.

I thought that there was freedom for me

that I had attained a level of pain and misery

that could not be surpassed

that would keep me invulnerable

to further suffering.

I thought that things could get no worse

that I had reached my nadir.

I thought I was as lost, as luckless

as low as I could be.

Implausibly, though,

you brought a ladder.