Take the Fall and Trust
Dancing outside on a rocky place
with a beautiful woman, humming a song
we both sort of know. I’m caught
by her long thick graceful hair.
She is as graceful as her hair
and does a sudden dip hanging suspended
from my arms above the sharp stones.
Suddenly I know my knee will not hold.
Panicked, I try to get her to the grass
before it and I go, and I do and it does,
and I tumble down a slight hill more
nimble than Jack, for I do not break
my crown or any of the attached limbs
but flip head over heels and land,
startled on my back. There was a moment
almost to the grass, when I said
to myself – time to let go – and I relaxed
all over my body, accepting the fall
I could do nothing about – and so
we were unhurt. Have I learned at last
to do this, to let go and take the fall
and trust the earth will be kind – sometimes?
by Nils Peterson
from Task: To Be Where I Am, 2025
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