Play Again

Late in 1962 New York newspapers reported the story of a nine-year- old child being raped on a roof, and hurled twenty stories to the ground. I draw near to the roof's edge and seek someone to lift and hurl me out into vacant air. I want to turn over and over rapidly in my plunge, my mouth open to scream but air rushing upwards jams my throat. I am seeking the peace I never once gave up on and this is the final way to find it. The living share me among them. They taste me on the ground, they taste me in the air descending. They taste me screaming, nine years old. I have playmates and I leave behind my skull in their dreams, hands to mouths. It is because they have no help, as if to hint to them the way, if they would understand. When we played it was to love each other in games. Play again and love me until I really die, when you are old on a flight of stairs.