The Fallen

by Dana Holley Maloney

They tell me when I fell from the plank

between haylofts, innocent about trying

to follow the leader and only five, they

were sure I'd died, my body thumping

the barn floor inches from the sharp tines

of the pitchfork. My mother rushed me

to Spangler, and on that long and silent

road I returned to life. Not knowing I’d

narrowly escaped myself, I learned about

death that fall when our teacher sat us

circled and cross-legged in the kindergarten

classroom to tell us Mia's mother had died.

I remember almost none of it, despite this

curved line of scar beneath my chin—only

how hard I worked to cushion falls for Mia.

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Dana Holley Maloney is a native New Jerseyan who lives and writes in midcoast Maine. Her poems have been published or are forthcoming in Lips, Tar River Poetry, Pine Hills Review, Paterson Literary Review, Chiron Review, and elsewhere. She teaches English at Montclair State University. More at danamaloney.com.