What are the motifs in The Nerve by Glyn Maxwell?

The Unknown is a recurring idea in the poem. Many people have a great fear of the unknown, the speaker of this poem suggests. As children, many thought that by going past the boundaries that were set by their parents, they would come to harm. In childhood, the unknown may have been simply the neighbor's yard or a great wood behind the house. If children went beyond these boundaries into unfamiliar territory, they might have been punished with tighter restrictions, or they might have been told that they would be stolen away by a stranger.