Falling in Love
Dec 27 2008


Sometimes, falling in love
really happens like that.
You’re strolling along
— carefree, optimistic
minding your own business —
when, in an instant
an open manhole swallows you up.
Dead-weight falling
all the way down.

But if it’s falling-in, then it’s drifting-out
— starting, stopping
stalked by self-doubt.
And trying to resurrect
how it felt, back then.
You remember being young.
You remember how it was
giving-in to surrender —
the free-fall
the total trust.
And you remember thinking only
of what is to come,
as if your past
belonged to someone else.
And looking back
you never really stopped loving her after all.
Or the idea of love, anyway,
once flesh and blood became too much.
Because ideas are easy, all froth and fluff
— no falling,
no hitting bottom,
no sudden stops.

You close your eyes,
and there she is
again.
But this time
when you stumble
you quickly open up,
watching-out for manhole covers
left undone.