I Fear (from "I Will Out")

                                                   
                                                             To center this body, which
cries out its tenderness no
matter how lean, muscled,
is to be set against any
state but ultimate self-
interest, against
consummating agents
towards portals beyond—

I fear this human life
more than I fear
physical death: bereavement
of vulnerable flesh,
the mendicant’s humbleness,
accruing the cripple’s
wisdom, scorned by
those still snug on
the material swing, still “in”
the crass way round—

I do fear, because the human
race are largely a pestilence,
& the bits of light here &
there are so easily,
rapaciously put out,
with/by material, in
material, & in another,
other mode of fear against this—