Niagara Falls Jumper Explains

I wasn't trying to kill myself,
not really. It was just there:
the water and the falling
music of it. I was in need
of that sort of rush,
a sort of deathsong baptism
like the day I drove across
a bridge and had this urge
to accelerate and aim
for the side, dive over
the abutment and rush past
every temptation.
I just closed my eyes and mouth
and let the water hold me,
the cold cocoon of it
tumbling and throwing me
against everything
that had ever gone wrong.

Copyright © 2004 Karla M. Huston All rights reserved
from 5 AM
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission