When I was a child, I was a free-footed falcon.

Every man in the world was a skyscraper and I perched here.

My dad was a falconer, he wore a leather glove.

My life was free from wasps, full of lemonade sun.

It was morning and the world was rising.

I love you but electricity can kill you.

I love you but light pollution obscures the stars.

I love you but birds must leave their nest

to know what it means to come home.

The bees are buzzing loudly now.

I am a falcon becoming a man,

my boots grow heavy on the ground–

So goodbye, I learned to fly

away. Goodbye,

I am burning in flight now.

Goodbye,

our eyes dilate to watch it.

I fly, and fly,

and it’s brilliant light

and it feels so good,

I fly,

and I know

electricity can kill me, but

I don’t mind,

I fly,

and light

becomes itself,

multiplied

and

multiplied,

I fly, and they watch

as I burst ––

This

becomes a

fire-reaching star,

This

which is inseparable

from the dark sky.

Yet silence still lay upon the water at night;

What a beautiful way to die.

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