THUMP! THUD! Ooof! Arrrrrr....oooo.....

THUMP!

THUD!

Ooof!

Arrrrrr....oooo.....

In my mind: 

I can't breath.  
I am flat on my back
I just slipped off the roof of one of Miller's garages

splat

flat on the ground

I can't breath.

I am just laying here.

No one is around.

I've got to roll on my side and get up
and start breathing again


"oooo that hurts."

Pulling up my feet towards my chest
bending my knees.


Breathing in
Breathing out

Rolling over onto my knees and elbows

Breathing in
Breathing out

Reaching my hands, my scratched up and scraped hands
there are cuts and red lines of blood on the palms of my hands

"ooo."  I am standing up.
My back hurts.
I am stiff.

I am standing straight up and breathing hard but okay.

Looking at the mashed over long grass and weeds
where I was just laying after slipping and falling 
off the top of the model garage.

I made it to the top on my own 
I climbed up on the roof.
I made it.

But I slipped and fell off onto the ground.

I am breathing okay now

Turning around and looking towards the garage

What is that?

It is a bent piece of perforated steel
that is 2 feet high, sticking out of the ground
in the mashed down grass where I 
was just laying after my fall.

My body didn't fall on that steel stake in the ground
I fell around it.  It was sticking up between 
my arm and my back.

I AM ALIVE!



When I was 11 or 12 I slipped off the asphalt shingle
roof of one of the Miller's Garages model garages
at the end of the alley between my street Joann
and the next, Fairport.

I had achieved one of my goals:

prove to myself I could climb up the side of one of the garages
onto the roof.

I DID IT!

But I slipped and fell off.

I COULD HAVE BEEN KILLED BY THAT STEEL STAKE

about 350 ft from our house I was laying on the ground not able to breath for what seemed like forever all by myself after slipping off the roof of a garage

All by myself.

3 inches in one direction and I could have destroyed my left arm if I had fallen on that steel stake.

3 inches in the other direction that stake 
would have pierced my back and my lung
and I would have bled to death
unable to scream for help
even moan.

I was alone.