Gillian Knibbs
A Different Way Back
Almost at once the silence fell like fairytales
and the map’s broken line became a shambling track.
Briars trip-wired and small rocks booby-trapped
the path already wet with needle-pine.
Still in dreams I see myself slip beneath
the wooden rail waist-high and green with moss.
The sheer drop pulls at my body; fingers,
toes itch at the edge. Over and over
I can sense the stomach plunge of the fall;
the thousand-foot fall that will never end.
But our legs wobbled on in heavy boots,
our vision blurred by panic sweat, the need
to concentrate on looking straight ahead
and to reach ground that would spread around us.
Despite the utter dread, still we do it,
still we try to find a different way back.
Page(s) 27
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