In that whistledown Sunday afternoon I took a balsa plane my father made giddy as glue! sleight as bones rondels filmed as downcast eyes on each seesaw wing held loose as tinder climbed as high limbs laced between the crag-barked branches of a light-struck pine long-tailed birds all fleeing in the sough and shriek of wind let it go with that slingshot fling as if I came to slay giants (never could) almost falling knee fishhooked ‘round a branch as thin as promises forearm raked in shallow furrows a hard kind of thirst bark against my cheek and brow hard as callused hands a stitch, a breath ribs punched in waited til the stars all died in cloud cast aftermath gone magnetic resonance blue street lights, windows flicking on in a far and moth-warm offering the plane ink-dark, almost gone to a curtailed horizon made that simple choice between forever, falling
