Walking the Tightrope copyright 1972 by Tracy Marks   When Henry McKenzie of Barnum & Bailey slipped from the tightrope, he hung for a moment by one hand, suspended over the netless ground. I knew such terror at six years old, abandoned in department store basements, wailing unheard or unheeded in a private room at the end of a long hallway. Perhaps he was lucky- to die so soon after he lost his footing. But I, shaky in my Libran balance, plant each foot on the wire, flap arms like a fledgling, distrustful of my new appendages, waver to the right and left, afraid to fall or miss the net, afraid there is no net, afraid I'll die in a flash like Henry McKenzie (with the ground only six inches below me)

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