There are winds and rains
that reach you on these rooftops
and they don’t seem to phase you

Your soul was escaping that night,
though,
you told me.

So we stood for a couple of hours
and counted things quietly
and self-referenced our past lives
so that nobody else could hear us

There were insects crawling in your hair
but you didn’t notice them. You never had.
They’d been with you a long, long time I think.

And the starlight did not do those billboards
justice,
they just glared so that the giant smiling faces
were on what was like fire.

So I kept my coat buttoned and
kept pulling down my hat so
it would not fly away, and you were
preoccupied too, and there we were

I think I saw it all in a dream, once.
It wasn’t as cold as I remember
but there was quite a lot of wind and rain,
that much I am certain of.