High Wire

Audio version

Old George* knew 
a thing or two 
and always said, as I recall, 
“The higher the wire, 
the harder the fall.” 

Time was, 
we could raise 
a little dream 
to distant heights,
and find some space 
above the lights
where it could grow 
and act like a promise 
to those we left below.

Never once 
did we believe 
that those 
who bet on us 
would ever 
pull the net on us, 
or that 
they'd ever leave.

Today a lot of us fall 
and no one sees.
There are no nets: 
we fall invisibly.

We crash 
to whatever ground 
meets us and wait 
silently but no crowd 
greets us to lend a hand, 
to provide some aid, 
until it dawns on us, 
bruised and numb, 
there is no help, 
that help will never come.

And when we rise again, 
if we ever do, 
a bit more crushed, 
a bit more broken, 
we think the bruises 
will be invisible, too, 
and so the pain 
we end up living through 
remains unspoken:

"We came so close, we were at the brink"

That's a lot of us now — More than you think.

* George W. S Trow, American essayist, novelist, playwright, and media critic