I hold a tottering pillar of my blood
to walk it upright on the tilting street.
The stuff is liquid, it would flow downhill
so very quickly if the hill were steep.

How perilously do these fountains leap
whose reckless voyager along am I!
In mothering darkness, Lord, I pray Thee keep
these springs a single touch of sun could dry.

It is the instant froth that globes the world,
an image gushing in a crimson stream.
But let the crystal break and there would be
the timeless quality but not the dream.

Sometimes I feel the island of my self
a silver mercury that slips and runs,
revolving frantic mirrors in itself
beneath the pressure of a million thumbs.

Then I must that night go in search of one
unknown before but recognized on sight
whose touch, expedient or miracle,
stays panic in me and arrests my flight.

Before day breaks I follow back the street,
companioned, to a rocking space above.
Now do my veins in crimson cabins keep
the wild and witless passengers of love.

All is not lost, they say, all is not lost,
but with the startling knowledge of the blind
their fingers flinch to feel such flimsy walls
against the siege of all that is not I!