Roll Out The Barrel (Poetry)

Surely no job for a woman
and a Victorian one at that —
a scary trip over Niagara
preceded by one small cat
who proved it to be possible
to endure the feat — survive
in just a padded barrel —
bob up shaken — but alive.

She wasn’t young and pretty
but a matron past her prime
and the stunt she was proposing
rather shocking for the time
but America’s America
and someone’s always first
to do even the crazy stuff
and see who comes off worst.

She took the plunge at 63 —
her birthday spent afloat
along Niagara river
with a barrel for a boat
then the currents pulled her over
down the Horseshoe Falls she went
with her lucky heart-shaped pillow
and a prayer to heaven sent.

A twenty minute journey
or maybe slightly less
for Annie Edson Taylor
in her prim and proper dress.
They rescued her much later —
a small gash upon her head
but otherwise uninjured
and it’s quoted that she said

she would rather face a cannon
and be blown to kingdom come
than risk another barrel ride
which hadn’t been much fun.
She lived another nineteen years
enjoyed but modest fame
while her barrel quietly disappeared —
her manager to blame.

Her name’s gone down in history
(though remembered now by few)
for hurtling down a waterfall’s
a harebrained thing to do
and attracted wide publicity —
those grim-faced photographs
fearing such a trip would be
no barrel-full of laughs.