It is into the kindness of strangers

that I must thank

after rescuing me

from the dizzying black haze that

swept vigorous broom like

over me on the night I fell out

of my chair down Florrie Maybrick’s Bold Street.

 

I have had hardly been out on my own since…

 

For the fear, for someone who is only afraid

of one thing, of such a tumble,

such anarchy in the mind

as the battle rages between

blood and bone,

between sinew and breath,