Fear remains
A poem or an incantation
A meditation or a journal entry
As the curtain of the world settles
Soft and warm on my face
An ecstasy of forbidden comfort
Fear remains
In the meeting notice
And the road trip by my family
And my parents' steps up the stairs
In the memory of words thirty years ago
And the visa appointment next week
It drives me away from the cliff's edge
Over which I glimpse
Now and then
Only beauty