Feeling for the Rope

I was just a baby  
five minutes ago
falling from a bed
two-hundred feet tall
 
Maybe it was more
because I still feel like
I'm falling

in the darkness  
of a new knowing  
 
If courage was a rope
for me to grasp
near my barnacle bird
descending way too fast;
 
clifeside rope-fire
cleansing my descent
bloodbath of burned-in grooves
 
May my bloody grip
congeal
enough  
to
slow  
my  
descent