The Faller Climber

Who can say how long or how far you had been falling
through the darkness when first you caught hold of something
in your left hand, which, like a ribbon, ran along with you as you fell
ever slower, until your right hand caught another something, and another
and finally you stopped falling, and finally you thought to yourself
Now I understand, after which, in the darkness, you gingerly began
to pull yourself along, gathering in those propitious threads
as you worked your way into the silky world of knowledge,
not quite a performer, no, but something to be compared
to one of those roving rope-loving acrobats from Cirque du Soleil,
climbing your way around for a lifetime inside a single head
in search of other fallers who also caught hold of a thread.