We don't fall
like rain
or like snow
or like New Year's Eve confetti
in sweeping graceful arcs;
we fall like atom bombs.

We fall like atom bombs,
ignorantly whistling our way to the ground.
We fall like a firestorm
scorching Dresden to smoldering ruin.
We fall like night--
completely,
unforgivingly,
thickly,
coldly.

We fall like angels
from twelve stories high,
singing love songs to concrete
to drown out the sirens.
We fall like pennies
from the Empire State,
flung from the observation deck--
carelessly,
mercilessly.

*Maybe falling makes us mighty,
but we're falling just the same.