Edwin Frank

BEGINNING

She appears. She hurtles

Out of the heavens. Out of the blue, she falls

Hard, heavy as a cliché, as unforeseen

As foreknown, she

Plummets and

Plunges down, she comes

Spiralling in towards the high branches lifted

To intercept her, to catch her, to claim her, she rips

Right into them, whirl and whistle, crashing

Into the crown, smashing

Down into the

Canopy, spinning

Inward, exploding

Outward as

A welter of leaves, so many twigs and branches

Shorn away sharply, cracking, or flailing

Back into place as still

She drops on through them, then stops, then drops

Again, and with

A lurch and a jolt and the shock of coming up short now

(The tree

Shuddering and rocking but already rocking

Less, the whole

Shock of it—her

Sudden passage

Into and out of sight—

Resolved now down into the roots from which

Unmarred, even

Unmarked, the tree

Rises) she falls

To begin with. To begin--

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