After M. C. Escher
Welcome to paradise. Here is the bell
to ring in case of fire. In the event
that your neighbor begins to fly:
Click your heels together three times
& pray God hears you.
In the event that you begin fleeing,
you begin heresy:
I am listening to footsteps in the garden
or the soft wheeze of a balloon
on its way down. The potted plant
& the shadow it casts.
I take umbrage
against gravity, knot it
around the railing to find my way back.
I could sit on the terrace
all night & wait for evacuation.
I thought of stumbling
head-first into mirrors, glass bruised
& shadowed
in the moon’s soft gradient.
Traveler of stairwells. I lose
track of my neighbors
& apartment
numbers, palindromes where the soft Os
of plaques gape
upwards. I scramble,
I mistake my hands for
my own.