I shall fall as if from icy space
And burn upon re-entry;
Scream a thousand years as fire
Rips this tortured flesh.
Down and down, flayed by air,
With steaming, crying blood –
My own, my victims’ –
Streaming back in fireball,
I fall my folly’s agonized descent.
And terror greater yet: I watch awake
The wild, careening earth rush up
To smash my screaming wits
Until in one dull thud, I hit…
And hit this soft earth barefoot
Walking gently in the grass.