That First Rooftop

This poem is about the first girl who ever invaded my world, that place between the ground and the clouds...

We found ourselves at the edge of a precipice,
having trespassed where we did not belong,
the outside seam of her jeans lightly touched my leg,
and her left thigh underneath,
our feet dangling over Louisiana,
a crude hulk of unfinished steel and concrete below us,
somewhere beyond that a street,
the soft circles of yellow lamp posts intermittently marking its path,
the city dark and distant,
discontinuous multi-colored lights dangling on the horizon
     like inverted stars,
uncertain miles stretch away from us,
with as much mystery and foreboding as our own invisible futures,
how young I thought myself,
courageous and charming,
bravely facing the distance,
the cool air that rushed up to meet us,
carrying on it an unfamiliar song,
until in that same future I found myself alone,
wishing I were the moon in order to feel justified in my solitude,
and only looking back did I realize how young I really was.

01.10