Archival Footage #30: Niagara Falls
nameless now 
in newsreel
the woman pulled from the river
below where high slender pale-
barked trees stand knee deep
in gray lapping nameless she is
river-broken she is worn thin
she is breathing because
sometimes they survive
the—what do we call them?—the
ones who select from all
possibilities this particular
dying this into the frigid upriver
blue this current riding
imagine her graceful slide
into the churning that descent
so slow not even a splash
and the sweep of chaos air
fierce and compelling relentless
the body thrust into the heavenly
white gush of falling water or lost
consciousness sometimes like this
woman with no name they wake
in the shallows to another earthly
face to his eager reach his grip
under arms to drag the same body out
imagine her disappointment a gasp
filling drenched lungs her horror
at the way things continue
to come apart slowly or all at once
