This is the primordial fall,
                                                and its failure---

Trip over an uplifted concrete slab, inertia driving me forward
and down to the street,
                                                     hands splayed, breaking the fall.

Cars roll past, heads turn, silently—

a young girl falls from a wall. i run there and find her gripping its ledge. She screams, "I can't hold on!" i run down steps to grab her legs dangling a few feet off the ground and let her down, but she lets go before....

I rise, palms skinned, knees bleeding beneath torn pants, hands blueswelling, fingers hyperextended...