“We want to push mankind’s boundaries out a little further.” – Felix Baumgartner
 

Man steps
off suspended
stage punctures
atmosphere’s
soft caul and
tumbles rough
and quick as noise
as gravity’s
elastic yanks
him back to earth
rings his body like
a bell the air
rattles his knee-
caps and the nut
in his skull icy-
drums his lungs
and bowels and
pilfers his eyes
of their wetness
sugars his fingers
with cloud
until he slows
up –
         his parachute
inflating like
a pocketful of God
to gusty tundra
of a nought – his
body’s flesh-packed
crockery ajangle
while he stills…
until he lands
stumbling among
tough scrub, sand,
in his cat’s cradle of Now;
shudders off strings
as yesterday’s, tomorrow’s
event horizon beckons
to the bigger man
who’s tiny as the rest.