Fear Of Falling
When fear of falling wrenches the visceral nerve
and the small blind muscles of the hand,
when the knotted bones of the foot refuse to serve,
only deception offers a place to stand.
Relax your footing on imagined place;
wall up the vacant air; suspend a light;
compose a line, a sound, a friendly face,
O shape a dream of comfort in the night.
Thin architecture of the soul's dream
will rise as if substantial; what you make
will hold awhile, solid as stones seem,
will house your panic till the day break --
the day, the hollow day, the heart falling,
the blind terror echoing and calling.
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