Dave Bonta's "On the cusp" is only a few lines long, but it feels like someone holding their breath. The speaker is close to a big change: quitting something, and in doing so "outing" themselves, which suggests revealing a hidden part of who they are. The poem doesn't say what is being quit or what is being revealed, and that vagueness makes the moment feel both personal and open to many readings.
The second stanza turns darker and stranger. "Otherwise I am / by God's grace bled" suggests that staying put means slowly losing something vital. The phrase "God's grace" sits oddly beside "bled," as if the speaker is mocking the idea of being rescued, or seeing a kind of sacrifice in simply enduring. The mood is tense and urgent. There is fear in it, but also a sense that the choice is already half made, because the alternative is to be drained away.