Falling
All I knew was that I had to hurry. My muscles tensed. My blood rushed. I wasn’t even sure why. I rolled forward into the night. I pushed through the crowded city street. My own heartbeat fell in with the footsteps, the car horns, the tires thumping down the avenue. I was outside in and inside out. We all blended—all the beats and the clangs and the whines. My pulse was no longer my own. I had lost the rhythm.
And then it happened. The staircase must have been there all along, and I missed my step. I tumbled down. I heard myself clatter and clack. I saw the air turn. And I landed alone in a clump at the bottom of the stairs. A dim light gleamed over a closed door. The outside rhythms had stopped. There was no push inside. No rush outside. I lay there a long time, at the bottom of that staircase, waiting for a pulse. My own steady beat. My own. Steady. Beat.
Comments
Wow. It’s great that my little tiny piece of prose serves as an example of one of Newton’s laws of motion. Thanks for the comment.
Jan May 11, 12:40
hope you’re o.k.
guri just told me about it.
i get to see her tomorrow.
we’re reading together
on saturday here in austin.
wish you could join us.
dj
dj May 13, 12:07
Commenting is closed for this article.
I felt that!
I believe you proved Newton’s second law.
The change of momentum of a body is proportional to the impulse impressed on the body, and happens along the straight line on which that impulse is impressed.”
“
celeste starr May 11, 09:35