At once both compelling and
Macabre,
I quietly taste the image
Roll it around in my mouth
Like a candy
The thought of falling, falling
Falling and then
IMPACT.

Pain, yes but the release it would bring
Release from what I don’t know but
Release from something.
I can taste it again -
Roll, roll goes the candy.

Not everyone knows, even today
That lemmings don’t jump off cliffs
They never did.
But the thought is delicious
To our minds, the thought of
Falling
Without reason -

My breath catches in my throat
Small spots of heat rise on my legs
As sweat forms in my pores.
I could do it -
Although I have no reason to do so
I am not sad, or lonely
Just curious.

Curious of that falling, falling
IMPACT.
IM-PACT.
I roll the word around my mouth once more
Roll, roll.

I’m much closer to the edge
Than I was a few moments before
I could do it I could do it
I. could. do. it.

My feet move by
Their own accord and
My toes are hanging off the edge and
It feels like a dream.
The ground is not
A dream.

Roll, roll.
Half my foot hangs over the edge
Was it always this windy?
I don’t know
I feel my balance start to
Waver and the spots of heat are
All over my body now I am
Burning up but in this moment
I am free.

And everything is still.
As if the whole world wonders
If I will actually
Fall.
I wonder too, if
I could do it - no
I CAN do it
I WILL do it
I WILL FEEL THE IMPACT
I WILL KNOW I WILL KNOW

My center of momentum
Crosses that sacred tipping point
And
I
Fall

Lost in the sound of rushing wind
Is a single word
Almost unheard
“no”
It escapes my lips like a
Breath
No time for another before the
IMP-