Judo Demonstration

​The first thing they teach you is how to fall.
Fall with control. Roll, slap your hand against
the mat, discharging energy. Fallen,
I recall the world tilting as I fell
for you like darkness falling, or the land
falling sharply down toward the river, pushed
into that stream again. Recurrent fall
night, autumn’s chill falling the length of time,
the whole twenty-three years of it, falling
prey to whatever in me falls silent
when we talk and I fall to listening.
Not my fault or yours. Both of us off balance.
We follow our pattern till it changes.
Shoulders fall, kiss the mat with tenderness.

First published in Caesura 2018