Abyss: A Villanelle

I feel a leaning, as over an abyss
of empty dark and drink my vertigo
black, and vast -- I hear the electric hiss

of lack, the ringing in my ears of miss-
ing sound. Swayed by its silent flow,
I feel a leaning as over an abyss.

Unstrung, the earth decenters, bucks and lists.
Uncertain now, bereft, I start and slow.
Black and vast I hear the electric hiss,

the static crackle, the separating kiss
of parting memories in a now near-vacant show:
it leaves me leaning, as over an abyss.

Once met by fill, this absence -- like a fist --
rebounds, recoils, deals a stunning blow
(blackening, vast, I hear an electric hiss

of coursing, startled want). Just this I know:
I am now where I never thought to go.
Black and vast it seems, an electric hiss,
and feels a leaning, as over an abyss.