Scared of Heights

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.