[Jennifer Reeser]

And who is this behind Door #6? ;-)

Musical, lovely title, apt without being dull. lizard/scissored is an enviable rhyme pair. I love the mystique of this poem -- the shadows and verbal/psychic "crevices" between phrases. The "foreign room" for example, is a wonderful evocation, an original and mysterious image.

Deft handling of the volta, and I can't help but wonder if your use of "turned" is an intentional inside joke. In line 5, you might clarify the subject by replacing "its" with "Death's."

Terrific, also, is this poem in its insight that the fearlessness arises from preparation and practice (symbolized by the "well-manured ground" and the painstaking care with which the fence has been wrought, the fence being representative and illustrative of a personality at peace with human limitation). Trusting in the stillness is nicely put.

[Tim Murphy]

I'm not persuaded by the octave, probably because I don't know how you plant ground with posies made of scissored twigs, nor even what a posie is??? But the sestet is just socko.