Where All the Ladders Start

Now that my ladder's gone,
I must lie down where all the ladders start
In the foul rag and bone shop of the heart.

Yeats, ‘The Circus Animals’ Desertion’

Continually having to remind yourself

you’re not alone can cause a droning in the heart,

produce a shrill note in the head, and drown

the greater portions of your limbic system

and prefrontal cortex in the deadening effects

of self-coercion. It calls for something like Yeats’

circus animals’ desertion: a wholesale exile

of exactly what you thought you needed to survive.

It’s then, perhaps, you’ll start to feel alive.










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