Show and tell

Some of them have stories

that I share at parties.

Honestly—

take this one:

I fell off a cliff.

One minute

I was hanging on top of the world.

The next I was wedged in a crevice

with blood oozing down my neck.

What followed was an odyssey

composed of a three mile hike,

three staples to the head,

and three young women named Jen.

I tell this story

at Thanksgiving and Christmas.

But I leave out the nights that followed

when I’d jolt awake

from the feeling of falling,

and the fear

of not getting back up.