Cables in the Sky

I know how to jump down stairs

It’s easy!

You can jump down seventeen at once

If you just have the right state of mind.

And then instead of landing,

Once you’ve got the hang of it

You’ll fly across the Quad

In full view of all the girls you’ve ever loved.

They’ll clap and sing

As you see skyscrapers from above

And cross the clouds,

now grey and black.

And it’s hard to slow down

when cables are slung across the sky

And you might hit the cables

because the sky is thick with them.

No wonder you can’t fly,

when you know you’ll die.

And after a thousand nights of this dream

I am in a tunnel like the inside of a Christmas tree

And the city of Kyiv climbs the tunnel walls.

Festivities and secrets hang

from the mile high gardens above the train.

I ride in and out of the mountains,

and the city stays with me.

Pulling me once again into the air

And this time I guide myself

Down, down,

electric cables below me now, toy train sized,

like the bus cables in San Francisco

criss-crossing Steiner street from my old window.

But here in this Ukraine,

I guide myself between the wires and

My feet touch the earth.

The cracked sidewalk of a mystery city

A bar, smoky, or filled with soft movie smoke.

“Go ahead and take the reins,”

says Sebastian, “you can finish this little commercial for me.

This is your show.”