What else is there but risk?  I have my reasons for the ones I take.  And if you know the outcome, technically that is A Safe Bet and not a risk at all.  So you don’t get any credit for trying in those circumstances.

But then the silence comes.  The answer that reminds me I wasn’t sure at all when I set out.  And in that empty mirror, I recognize how much stronger the hope was than I had admitted.  See that the words carried me to an unknown audience, my questions written on a scrap of paper, picked up by a sudden gust of wind and whirled beyond my grasp. There’s no way I can chase them back into the safety of my pocket.  Those little kites have sailed.

The hardest answer came when I felt so sure of the other heart.  That is how risk is.  Sometimes you don’t even know it’s there.

That silence did not yield, and it reminded me how to lose.

This is the way to have what you have.  At least, as far as I can tell.