Luanne Castle
How They Fall
What falls away is always. And is near.
The doe pressed by fear at cliff edge.
The parachutist who plummets through cloud,
tiny glittering crystals adhere like insects,
dampening her suit and helmet.
Love is hard and away. Being young
and too close to his mother, it was necessity.
The next one, watch her. Falling like float,
the slight whir as she parts the air, her strong
wing bones fanned out, her arm crooked
to push hair from her mouth open without scream--
straight from heaven to earth. I follow
at night as I sleep without landing, my arms
akimbo, hands at my crown, mouth wide.
I’m without voice. See the knobby scars
where the wings once grew as spindles.
Luanne Castle's Kin Types (Finishing Line), a chapbook of poetry and flash nonfiction, was a finalist for the 2018 Eric Hoffer Award. Her first poetry collection, Doll God (Aldrich), was winner of the 2015 New Mexico-Arizona Book Award. A Pushcart and Best of the Net nominee, she studied at University of California, Riverside (PhD); Western Michigan University (MFA); and Stanford University. Her writing has appeared in Copper Nickel, TAB, Glass, Verse Daily, and other journals.