Scared of Heights
You think you are carrying someone,
but really you are being carried.
Their hands, your ropes. Your body,
their trapeze. Are you scared of
heights because you don’t trust yourself
not to plummet off a cliff.
To dive better, jump on a board atop
a spring. Jumping from higher up
will make you fall faster. The water
will catch you. Or the lifeguard
with the little-boy face and the body
of a fireman. Catching can be
violent, think of how we snag fish
and fling them into our boat,
our air. Their world is wet, and up here,
we’re dry. In North America,
when it is cold, as it is now, it is warm
in Australia. Temperature is a
symptom of being sandwiched together
and spinning, a yo-yo gripped
and pitched, returning with equal force
to what has thrown it.
Well, now this makes me scared of heights.
ReplyDeleteOutstanding...it was all flowing in my mind as I was trying to compare to my own feelings about heights and you got me with the lifeguard with boy face and body of firefighter...I was trying to picture him and the firefighter suit distracted me : )
ReplyDeleteI did not think how fish felt when they were flung out of water, always more concerned with their lips!
I love this poem...I don't fear cliff heights but do fear diving board heights a lot! Have a great wednesday Hannah! : )
Killer first line!!
ReplyDeleteoh, our relationships, nothing is still.
ReplyDeleteCatching can be violent, think of how we snag fish and fling them into our boat...
you excite me!
who am i to say what is not poetry? i don't know a fricken thing. but but but, with great confidence (and still, sorry, knowing nothing) i say, THIS IS POETRY!
xo
erin