Content Warning: The following discusses suicide or suicidal thoughts. If you or someone you know is in crisis, please call or text the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 in the U.S., or visit this list of international hotlines.

Red Gravel/Free Across the Roof-Top

She stood stretched in the air, as if she

Was winged & knew just how to fly

 

Childish, dark, second-rate wasn’t her

She meant to be long, golden, blue eyed

 

Moving then, she climbed up attic stairs

To the gravelly roof & felt wild, free

 

There she danced over the red stones

Next, she bent forward, told herself Jump

 

You can flash bird-like, be butterfly-scaly

Fly now, she called up to the clouds

 

Carry me to the rim of the rising sun

Hot, surged, she shrugged off her clothes

 

Then arms spread, she jumped, stretched

Her wings, sure she could skim the sky