on a rooftop in Minneapolis I sit with a book
I find a pane of glass that pushes out onto the flat roof – away
from the one million books that I am supposed to be shelving and dusting
and rubbing with Goo-Gone. my sweat drips onto the pulp
the mouth of the Mississippi waves to me as Old Man Ed marvels at
the progression of my neon skin to even oak
the books move continent and breed with alarming pace
I buy the bigger version of the Billy bookcase
accidentally screw the same shelf in backwards
paint over the exposed chipboard with white acrylic
I am on the roof when the bridge falls into the river – the concrete buckles in stages
bits of road slip towards the two-mile wide water, as men and women in suits
screech and jump from their cars, running uphill to the river bank;
an exercise they had been training for on the treadmills at Goodlife
I spring to my feet, knocking my book off the edge of the roof
switch my gaping eyes between book and bridge
transformed into a valley
glass doors draw back to reveal the dream
between their open and shut I watch the air I had waited to re-breathe
the snow I had waited to re-see, the cold I had waited to re-feel
the weather had stood still all this time, had continued without me as if
I was never there
Julie Morrissy is a poet living in Dublin after spending many years in Canada and the US. Her debut poetry pamphlet ‘I Am Where’ (Eyewear Publishing) is a selection of poems reflecting on notions of permanence and certainty in a globalised world. In 2015 she was shortlisted for the Melita Hume Poetry Prize and selected for the Poetry Ireland Introductions Series. She is a Vice Chancellor Research Scholar in poetry at University of Ulster.
