Fallout

A few years ago, I was lucky enough to be part of a sketch comedy group here in LA called Camerashrapnel. It consisted of an amazing group of super talented people and I loved being a part of it. Sadly, the time came to let the project go but we wanted to go out with a bang. Two of the other members and I got together and wrote a full-length play, rather than our usual sketches. It was one of the best experiences I've had since moving to LA. At one point, the following poem came to me. I wrote it out, not sure if there would be a spot for it or not. But the other writers loved it. We ended up using the title of the poem as the show's title and had one of the characters use the poem in the play. Anyway, I recently came across it again and decided to throw it out in internet-land.  :)

Fallout. 
Dissect it to find two words. 
Neither appeal to the senses. 
Defenses creep in and resist
The fall - promise of a nasty end. 
Pretend it's romantic, 
Not frantic. 
Images of broken bones, shattered pieces. 
Life shrapnel raining
Pain. 
Intensely it haunts
Flaunts power
In every little space, 
Every dark place, 
And right in your face. 
It finds you when you didn't even know you were hiding.
You were abiding by the rules laid out for you. 
Doing what's expected. 
Except that - 
Sometimes you trip. 
Fall. 
And realize you are now
Out. 
Out of touch. 
Out of place. 
Out of the race you thought you were winning, 
Beginning to crack under the pressure to squeeze back in. 
Out of time to solve the problem that wasn't there before the fall.
All you have is the pain
To remind you that you remain
In this world. 
And suddenly you realize the pain is gain. 
It's what gets you back in because 
We all fall. 
Hit walls.
Wrong turns, third-degree heartburns
But we return. 
Because when you think not about the fall, 
But the climb, 
Not about being out, 
But who you meet on the way back in, 
You begin
To live.