Go above your nerve

If your Nerve, deny you

292

If your Nerve, deny you—
Go above your Nerve—
He can lean against the Grave,
If he fear to swerve—

That’s a steady posture—
Never any bend
Held of those Brass arms—
Best Giant made—

If your Soul seesaw—
Lift the Flesh door—
The Poltroon wants Oxygen—
Nothing more—

Emily Dickinson

Love the word poltroon. As a noun it means a complete coward. As an adjective it means contemptible.  The poltroon, the coward within one's self, merely wants oxygen when one's nerve, or courage, denies one's need to find the fierceness to be soft.