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PAR T Falling A 29-year-old stewardess fell ... to her death tonight when she was swept through an emergency door that suddenly sprang open.... The body ... was found ... three hours after the accident. -New York Times ONE FALLING The states when they black and out and lie there rolling when they turn To something transcontinental move by drawing moonlight out ofthe great One-sided stone hung offthe starboard wingtip some sleeper next to An engine is groaning for coffee and there is faintly coming in Somewhere the vast beast-whistle ofspace. In the galley with its racks Oftrays she rummages for a blanket and moves in her slim tailored Uniform to pin it over the cry at the top ofthe door. As though she blew The door down with a silent blast from her lungs frozen she is black Out finding herself with the plane nowhere and her body taking by the throat The undying cry ofthe void falling living beginning to be something That no one has ever been and lived through screaming without enough air Still neat lipsticked stockinged girdled by regulation her hat Still on her arms and legs in no world and yet spaced also strangely With utter placid rightness on thin air taking her time she holds it In many places and now, still thousands offeet from her death she seems To slow she develops interest she turns in her maneuverable body To watch it. She is hung high up in the overwhelming middle ofthings in her Self in low body-whistling wrapped intensely in all her dark dance-weight Coming down from a marvellous leap with the delaying, dumfounding ease Ofa dream of being drawn like endless moonlight to the harvest soil Ofa central state ofone's country with a great gradual warmth coming Over her floating finding more and more breath in what she has been using For breath as the levels become more human seeing clouds placed honestly Falling / 243 Below her left and right riding slowly toward them she clasps it all To her and can hang her hands and feet in it in peculiar ways and Her eyes opened wide by wind, can open her mouth as wide wider and suck All the heat from the cornfields can go down on her back with a feeling Ofstupendous pillows stacked under her and can turn turn as to someone In bed smile, understood in darkness can go away slant slide Offtumbling into the emblem ofa bird with its wings half-spread Or whirl madly on herself in endless gymnastics in the growing warmth Ofwheatfields rising toward the harvest moon. There is time to live In superhuman health seeing mortal unreachable lights far down seeing An ultimate highway with one late priceless car probing it arriving In a square town and offher starboard arm the glitter ofwater catches The moon by its one shaken side scaled, roaming silver My God it is good And evil lying in one after another ofall the positions for love Making dancing sleeping and now cloud wisps at her no Raincoat no matter all small towns brokenly brighter from inside Cloud she walks over them like rain bursts out to behold a Greyhound Bus shooting light through its sides it is the signal to go straight Down like a glorious diver then feet first her skirt stripped beautifully Up her face in fear-scented cloths her legs deliriously bare then Arms out she slow-rolls over steadies out waits for something great To take control ofher trembles near feathers planes head-down The quick movements ofbird-necks turning her head gold eyes the insighteyesight ofowls blazing into hencoops a taste for chicken overwhelming Her the long-range vision ofhawks enlarging all human lights ofcars Freight trains looped bridges enlarging the moon racing slowly Through all the curves ofa river all the darks ofthe midwest blazing From above. A rabbit in a bush turns white the smothering chickens Huddle for over them there is still time for something to live With the streaming half-idea ofa long stoop a hurtling a fall That is controlled that plummets as it wills turns gravity Into a new condition, showing its other side like a moon shining New Powers there is still time to live on a breath made ofnothing But the whole night time for her to remember to arrange her skirt Like a diagram ofa bat tightly it guides her she has this flying-skin Made ofgarments and...

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