The Great Leap

At the Cliff’s Edge, cloud tops wait below

Deliberating, knees shaking,

I choose the air’s embrace,

Then see I’m already falling:

The choice already beat me in the race

Suspended moisture coolly kisses my face as I go by

But an hour flies away, then the whole day,

My freefall lulls me to dreamstate.

I see other passersby who’ve taken The Great Leap,

Whole groups of them sometimes, 

Holding hands to form a circle,

Falling.

A would-be friend, an interminable distance away

Waves all his limbs, 

Hello!

Points between us to a cloud far below

For us both to aim for.

Taking our ease on divans of air, he asks who I am,

That I would decide to take The Great Leap.

‘I didn’t really mean to,’ I confessed.

‘I mean, I did decide to jump.

But when I'd decided, I was already falling!

For whole minutes, maybe.’

My friend nodded, sagely.

‘For me, I’d already felt my life in freefall for years, 

Before I ever made it to Cliff’s Edge,

And tried every other choice besides.’

From below us, a city began to rise.

I wasn’t afraid: 

They were falling too, buildings and all.

‘This doesn’t end anytime soon?’

‘None of them thought so,’ my friend said,

‘But who knows?’