Sometimes I poem

Sometimes, when I'm trying to define the heart of a new story or a main character, it helps me to write a short poem about whatever scene I have so vividly painted in my head that I feel compelled to expand on that scene by 80,000 words or so. One WIP I have currently on my burners is tentatively titled "The Maybe Road." Here is the poem for that story:

Fog claims the distance,

leaving the dock, the water, and me.

Weathered planks roll and buck,

Move
         with
    the
          sea
    to
          keep
    from
                  cracking.

I am less safe on solid ground,

Everything I shouldn’t want upon that beach.

So I cannot set foot upon the sand again,

For fear I’ll never leave.

Can you see our Maybe Road

Peeking from the twisted oak?

A lifetime of what could’ve been

Had I traded yes for no.

The ferry comes and I step on board.

You’d call it a decision in itself.

In the sliding gray, I am offered no reflection,

Merely a shadow of myself.