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Skull of a Young Tightrope Walker Who Died of a Broken Neck, 1934

human skull, glass

Mudder Museum, Philadelphia

I     am     more

than        those

last     seconds

wobble      and

then            the

evaporation

of             hope

grace     on    a

wire     I     was

once

elegance

perfect

wonder

almost

falling            is

harder      than

not       anyone

can     walk     a

wire           only

the   best   can

pretend        to

fall                for

nothing’s

easier        than

failure

there’s

a    quick    grip

on    the    stale

absence

of the air

then ground

living is hard

hard     is      an

only           child

making

a  pieta   in  his

mother’s

arms   hard   is

a           mother

walking

away

from Museum of Objects Burned by the Souls in PurgatoryFind more by Jeffrey Thomson at the library

Copyright © 2022 Jeffrey Thomson
Used with the permission of The Permissions Company, LLC on behalf of Alice James Books.

Published in Jeffrey Thomson Poems

This program is supported in part by a grant from the Idaho Humanities Council, a State-based program of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this (publication, website, exhibit, etc.) do not necessarily represent those of the Idaho Humanities Council or the National Endowment for the Humanities.