Poem: Fire Escape

Outside fire escape
Offers escape to nowhere
Except to straight down

Poem: Boredom

On fire escapes
Where we used to smoke cigarettes
Before it became passé
Killing time between being drunk
And the inevitable hangover

Poem: Lena-Go-Round

Lena toes the edge
Of a rusty fire escape
Saying she’s ready to go
With her I’m never sure
If she’s thinking of packing
Or if she’s thinking of jumping
She’s like the tilt-a-whirl
Always spinning around
And I’m always ready
With my ticket for the ride

Poem: Watching Lives Through Windows

A fire escape is a misnomer
Sitting out here bare to the stars
I don’t feel like I’ve escaped
The fire that burns within
My chest beating with passion
Unrequited by the strangers
Moving through their lives

Poem: A City Dreaming of Itself

My dreamer listens
To the song of the city
That pretends it never sleeps
Calling out with the multitude
Of strangers voices in a choir
With cars and sirens and noise
Cacophonous to untrained ears
To my dreamer it’s a lullaby

Poem: Reflection on the Escape

The further away she got
The smaller the world got
From stories above the city
She could see the whole city
Where it all seem manageable
Where all her fears are manageable
Back before she herself got big
Small stories that didn’t seem so big