Vlad Pogorelov (Rocklin, California, USA): from Derelict: Under Those Roofs (a children's poem for grown-ups)

For C. Hewins

A city with three million roofs
Was fifty miles wide
Somewhere under those roofs
They had a place to hide

He— was a man
Or maybe a boy,
Or maybe he was a she
It’s not important who he was
We never met for tea

He had his roof,
He had his floor,
Besides he had a cat
And when the day would go to sleep
They would both go to bed

She— had a room
Under the roof
And underneath the floor
The roofs had the color of the sun,
The spider and the moon

We met that night
I saw the sun, the spider
And the moon
And since I was there by myself
She let me see some more
And then I saw myself and her
Both laying on the floor
Under the colors of the sun,
The spider and the moon
And when I left her she was asleep
We never met again

Tired
Happy
Loved
She was laying
On her back
She didn’t moan anymore, and yet
She was alive
Wrapped in the pleasures of her dreams
Of a dying candlelight

He— thought of a wife
He never had,
Of children who are not there
And then he lighted a cigarette
To drive away the despair
And it was quiet outside
“It must be night,” he said,
Life is too short
The nights are long
Its time to be in bed

He petted his cat,
He brushed his teeth,
And finally went to sleep
I hope, maybe in his dreams
His soul will not weep

She was asleep
A long time ago
The time was passing by
And though they never met each other
They’d never say “Good-bye”

A city with three million roofs
Is fifty miles wide
Somewhere under those roofs
We all have a place to hide

© Vlad Pogorelov 1997