Skyline

There's a city out there

he wants to be part of .

Skyscrapers jagged edges

etch their way across his mind,

from the tenement top

he tries to touch them.

Leaning an inch, two, three,

too far, he's falling ,

Falling frantically

pinwheeling arms

throw him back to try again,

in desperation that drives him,

and again, until fatigue defeats him.

Then with arms hugging folded knees in despair,

he watches darkness descending

on a dimming distant skyline.

7-2-80