All Fall Down

The fragility of life

Photo by Bruce Christianson on Unsplash

All my life has been
a fall controlled.

Balance the counterweight.
Dance on the spear’s tip.
Don’t let them trip you up.
Slide beneath the wires.
Waltz between the raindrops.
Soar on notebook paper wings
held steady by a thread.

Here
in the moment
you are home

hopscotching between stalls
smiling thank you
for the extra plantain
and yes, you’d like
your watercress clipped.

The game goes on
until you stumble.

Until the thread is snipped
the kite tumbling
in the storm.

Until a handle rips
tomatoes and baigan rolling
everywhere

and you lie in the road

your body
a crumpled market bag
that can’t hold a thing —
not even you.