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—