Fear Of Falling Poem by Mary Champion

A congenital fear; -
a gut wrenching terror-
of falling.
At peak moments,
all I see is the potential
fr a precipitous dive
Into disaster.
I fear a fall from grace;
the fallout from a quarrel,
a falling-out among friends;
a fall in my fortunes.

It is the stuff of my night-mares.
At nightfall
I sense
the footfall of fear -

Dropping off ledges,
off bridges,
over edges,

crashing down stairs,
tumbling down rabbit holes,
and disused mineshafts.
Plummeting through windows
slipping through gaps in the floorboards
and cracks in the pavement.

Toppling from clifftops
and skyscrapers -
a plunge from the Eiffel Tower;
falling from the Shard,
losing my footing on the scaffolding-
all of these have figured
in my nightmares.

Yet, though the fear is real enough,
no bones are broken
no limbs bruised.
In dreams
it is all in the mind.

But once,
with my eyes open
and my mind closed,
I fell, so hard
I smashed my life to pieces.
But that was love,
which is all in the heart.