Issue 1: July 2003

Karen Annesen | Simon Barraclough | Helen Clare | Simon Rees-Roberts | John Stammers | Roisin Tierney

KAREN ANNESEN

How to Fall

Easy, I've been doing it all my life.
On cobblestone streets
in high heels, yes.
Off a bike at seven,
your friend shouting faster
some fear mixing in your blood
with yellow cake and pink icing.

Try a slapstick fall —
the ones where bodies
seem without bones,
seem to give way
somewhere low down.
Practice falling while smiling —
not wondering about your teeth,
the position of the furniture,
brain damage.

Off a train, out of a speeding car
like a stunt artist.
Remember to look like someone else,
like someone who doesn't fall for a living.
Then, when those moving trains no longer scare you,
try falling out of love,
because you have to,
with the one person
in whose eyes the world seems steady.

Or falling from grace
not gently, but with alacrity —
take off your clothes in meetings,
eat everything with your mouth open,
get louder when told to calm down or shut up,
laugh in public libraries,
refuse to fall out of love.