This poem is describing the infamous photo of an unidentified man who jumped from the Twin Towers before they collapsed. What hits a chord is the third stanza that says:
“Each is still complete
with a particular face
and blood well-hidden.”
I just can’t imagine what a body looks like after falling that many stories. Szymborska is describing the body that is falling using what it looks like after it has hit the ground. She uses the negative to create an image of both the before and after-math of the jump. The 4th stanza elongates the time frame of the jump and really puts into perspective how long it took for the man to fall,
“There’s enough time
for hair to come loose,
for keys and coins
to fall from pockets.”
I can’t imagine what the man is thinking to himself, his death was definitely not a swift one, there must have been so many thoughts racing through his mind. The poet also exudes hopeless and wishes she could have done more. Szymborska wants to leave the ending unsaid for these jumpers, she only wants to describe this flight. Szymborska wants to keep them in flight, to keep their memories alive. Flight is usually used to describe a plane ready for take-off, but not in this case. The jumpers are in flight, however, it is a descending flight to their deaths, and the use is not describing a plane but rather a person. The plane in this scenario has ended its flight but the person is just in the midst of theirs.
I agree with everything you said Chloe. Szymborska really immortalizes those that are falling to their end. As you said, she does not complete the ending and in doing so, she leaves them in an endless flight. It is sad and scary to think about what they saw inside that brought them to want to leap to their end but through her poem and pictures that capture them in their flight, they are beyond life and beyond death. Sometimes when you think of flight, you think of escape, and that’s what they were doing. They were escaping into the next life, whatever it might be, but they also brought themselves into history. They are some of the immortals now, as never will anyone forget the tragedies of 9/11.