Govett’s Leap

Looking across to Bridal Veil Falls,
You feel your weight’s
Free will against the fence
Urging you outward into that immense
Absence of panorama which appalls
The same mind it exhilarates.

Impossible to calculate the stretch
From here to there”
That far sunwall of cliff”
And wonder how long you would wonder if
That empty impulse undertook to fetch
You forth into the mindless air.

And a butterfly floats past you to commit
Precisely this.
You very nearly gasp
And fling your hand out in a desperate grasp,
For one distracted second sure that it
Will plummet into that abyss.