Sometimes when I get home from work and school I want to take off my shoes and shirt, and fling myself off the world. Just dive right over the edge and let my arms and feet hang backwards behind me while I plunge into the night. I wonder about the sailor caught under the superstition that the world was flat, as Magellan took them over the flat limits of the earth. Did he relish the idea of falling? I can imagine him standing apart from his mates, clinging to a hawser- his toes knotting into balls in an effort to cling to the deck. His eyes wild with wonder. For him it must have been about what's at the bottom, the real end. For me I want to know the fall.

My brother is back from the war again. I will be traveling up to Washington again to see him this weekend. He was scheduled to arrive on Tuesday, Inauguration Day.