Sometime later the sky opened
things fell upon us
upon the streets and houses
upon the cars and movie theaters
upon the old women with canes
and their idiot husbands
sometime later the sky opened
things fell upon the bicycle riders
and acrobats
upon the prostitutes and police officers
upon the destitute and dying
and the beautiful girls with auburn hair
and the brave young men with flowers
things fell
crushing those objects you might imagine
they would crush
even dogs and children
not cats, of course,
for cats are wise and adept
at vanishing
but it was unspeakable
this crushing
so I can’t comment on what they were
these things that fell upon us
that crushed us
but sometime later the sky opened
it did
and things fell upon us
and things fell
and fell
and fell
and I was not sad
because I knew it was coming
and I am, after all, a man
and I do not give in to sorrow
I will miss you, though
beautiful one
I will miss you most of all
I will miss you like my own blood
amid this wasted splendor