Falling: The Code

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1.
Through the night 
the apples
outside my window 
one by one let go 
their branches and 
drop to the lawn.
I can’t see, but hear
the stem-snap, the plummet
through leaves, then
the final thump against the ground.

Sometimes two 
at once, or one 
right after another.
During long moments of silence
I wait
and wonder about the bruised bodies, 
the terror of diving through air, and 
think I’ll go tomorrow
to find the newly fallen, but they
all look alike lying there
dewsoaked, disappearing before me.

2.
I lie beneath my window listening 
to the sound of apples dropping in

the yard, a syncopated code I long to know,
which continues even as I sleep, and dream I know

the meaning of what I hear, each dull 
thud of unseen apple-

body, the earth 
falling to earth

once and forever, over 
and over.

© Li-Young Lee