"Falling is the consequence that we accept
for our decision to leave the ground."
- Lor Sabourin, 28, Professional Rock Climber
Staring up in the eyes of her lover, bedtime work sheet
joint sliding, Puritee wonders . Is this port for anchor
lease age right. Fingers trace his shoulders grip, Closer,
there yet? print . layer piercing.
Ordinarily
nobody hangs within wedge range to catch tumble
suddenness; alone you could poke fun ways out or
cat curl through dream, billing cycles | moon full,
a scrolling goat herder might notice something zeit
geist intended.
Waiting
in place / partner hasn’t called, waist cord in lift
tug readiness / vows go light heady. Doctors say
It’s a sign . strong empathy nerve ends; like sea crow
wired for migrant boat run, our island prayer beads
keeping score.
Don't
avoid falling, the rock fellow adds, Learn to fall
better . sounding like a famous playwright
you might hear echoes of | off the beam, high
time n’est-ce pas to lower exculpations, canopy
pilot lines; blaze, fade level crossings.
– W.W.
LESSING
*BUT don't get Lessing the cockeyed fantasist
Started or he’ll tell you fantasy is just
A reality that hasn’t yet condensed.
As faithful Sci-fi aficionados might
Swear, or as a non-literalist reader
Of Genesis might imagine of pre-Fall
Adam+Eve, that wraith of androgyny before
Its nipples got split and set from two to four
And incest and Murder, hatched of frustrated
Nostalgia for the One’s freedom, were seeded.
(from “Charon’s Anchors” by Brian Chan)