Views from the Rooftop

The pigeons don’t like visitors – unless
you have bread crumbs – I toss a few
their way and they snap them up
hungrily, allowing me to pass and
make my way to the ledge.

I sit and my legs dangle in the evening
air, above the fire escape and the
old dumpster below, I see rats scurrying
about among newspapers, fast food
wrappers and leftovers from a party
I wasn’t invited to.

A car rolls by and throws a bag into
the dumpster, I hear a faint sound,
meowing, another bag of kittens
has been discarded.

I make a mental note to retrieve
the bag and bring it to the animal
shelter later, but for now the
kittens are safe from the cold wind that
swoops down from a cloudless sky and
sends goosebumps down my back.

I stand up, stretching out my arms,
reach out, and catch the wind.

 

 

 

About the Poet:
Shirley Jones-Luke is a poet and writer from Boston, Massachusetts. She is a graduate of Emerson College’s Creative Writing Program. Ms. Luke was a 2016 The Watering Hole Poetry Fellow. Her work has appeared in ENUF, Mass Poetry and the Skinny Poetry Journal. Ms. Luke is currently working on a poetry manuscript.

 

 

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