Sky Terrace
by Robin Ray

  1. Inner-city rooftop garden,
  2. my 9-foot square production,
  3. lettuce/tomatoes/green beans,
  4. flourishing amidst the odor
  5. of malignant poverty.
  1. Your mind’s adrift, they yell.
  2. First we drink, then we die.
  3. This is urban battleground.
  4. We’re sitting on nothing but
  5. our fears and primal hurt.
  1. I shoulder the outbursts
  2. exhaled upwards by the
  3. municipal towers as if I
  4. had an interest, muse how
  5. amazing the night sky,
  6. so laden with lit fruit and
  7. no collisions, all simply
  8. showing us how to find
  9. our way home.
Packingtown Review – Vol.15, Spring 2021

Robin Ray is the author of Wetland and Other Stories (All Things That Matter Press, 2013), Obey the Darkness: Horror Stories, the novel Commoner the Vagabond, the poetry collection Welcome to Flowerville: Poetry from San Juan Commons, and one book of non-fiction, You Can’t Sleep Here: A Clown’s Guide to Surviving Homelessness. His works have appeared at Delphinium, Bangalore, Squawk Back, Outsider, Red Fez, Jerry Jazz Musician, Underwood Press, Scarlet Leaf, Neologism, Spark, Aphelion, Vita Brevis, and elsewhere.

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