ASCENT
ASCENT
Such a clumsy dance,
The shock of loss, a one-night chance,
The trap of love the web surrounds,
As faces stare up from the ground.
So marching tall, on up the stairs
The rhythm guides me unaware,
Inventing song from skies unstained:
I find the rooftop in the rain.
To try the reckless way—
Some hope to climb, yet yearn to stay—
Then catch the sky and lose the game,
To wild applause but no acclaim—
Let’s weave the antique carpet right
And trap the fading rainbow’s light:
With poems and snares and iron chain,
That wait on rooftops in the rain.
Unfortunate, for all the shame,
To kneel in the rooftop rain:
The pigeon coos in trusting grasp
And lays down one more time at last.
To reach the top, this sorry state,
Without the slightest thought of fate
The comedy soon disappears,
In rooftop rain, in rooftop tears.
FOR ROY BATTY – The real “Blade Runner”– 2023
Look at Roy Batty's death at the conclusion of "Blade Runner" (the original one). Let your thinking expand to include the whole movie and all its themes. Then read each line and consider all the ideas, images, words, allusions...
