The famous funambulist,
Karl Wallenda said,
'The only place I feel alive is on the wire,'

in 1977, at age 72, he walked
 a 720-foot cable
(about 2 football fields) from the
Miami Fountainebleau to the Eden Roc Hotel,
170 feet above the ground
while crowds of people ogled
at his marvelous feat of balance,
he called this walk, 'the toughest stunt
of his life.'

but in Puerto Rico, only a year later,
at 73, he fell
not from age, or a misstep,
but from a gust of wind
coming off of the Caribbean combined
with a poorly connected guy-wire

on live TV,
he fell 120 feet,
hit his head on a parked taxi,
and five minutes later
pronounced dead,
 
it shouldn't shock anyone to think
that he would want to die
in the same way as
he only wanted
to live

for 'The Flying Wallenda,'
risking was savoring life

© Brian Hodgkinson Jr. (aka) Limericist 2007