The poem
Ice-cold fear has slowly decreased As my bones have grown, my height increased. Though I shiver in snow of dreams, I shall never Freeze again in a noonday terror.
I shall never break, my sinews crumble As God-the-headmaster's fingers fumble At the other side of unopening doors Which I watch for a hundred thousand years.
I shall never feel my thin blood leak While darkness stretches a paw to strike Or Nothing beats an approaching drum Behind my back in a silent room.
I shall never, alone, meet the end of my world At the bend of a path, the turn of a wall: Never, or once more only, and That will be once and an end of end.