Ghost of a Chance

You see a man

trying to think.

You want to say

to everything:

Keep off! Give him room!

But you only watch, 

terrified

the old consolations

will get him at last

like a fish

half-dead from flopping

and almost crawling

across the shingle,

almost breathing

the raw, agonizing air

till a wave

pulls it back blind into the triumphant 

sea.

Adrienne Rich