Rip Cord
                Do not put forward anything that
                yon cannot prove by experimentation
                                        -Louis Pasteur

If we were meant to jump from airplanes,
our wings would look less like arms
pumping very fast. I discovered gravity
and the ER in one afternoon
of aversion therapy. The tree moved not.
I met the ground. Hated the sky since.
I like my fear served with a side of reason, as in
There is no reason to find yourself
outside the aircraft at 10,000 feet.
It's what separates me from my fellow animals:
I go in for the known, and have opinions
of the unknown too. This is me being
honest here, normally a midnight solitary thing.
This is honesty here being created, like a billboard,
which is different from truth, truth exists
whether we create it or not.
I'm knocking what I haven't tried.
I'll take your word for it.
Fear and reason. Oatmeal raisin.
Some words are meant to follow others,
some people as well.

Copyright © 2009 Jamie Thomas All rights reserved
from 32 Poems
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission