ninety sarpedon An aged and creaking wooden ladder leads up to the black tarred rooftop. Flat, unlike most roofs today, but it really makes the house heat up during the summer. The air conditioning unit broke yesterday, making the upstairs rooms feel hot and stuffy. Nice. When I was young, my parents had strict rules about not going on the roof under most circumstances. My acrophobia usually did not overcome any latent curiosity I had around, so I naturally enjoyed ascending the rocks or the ladder every so often. I've dreamed about staying up there to relax for a bit, especially in the night time, and especially when the temperature is just warm enough to sit comfortably, maybe even on a lawn chair. The stars are visible in the southwest; Orion's waistline usually makes a clear view when I am unable to identify most other starts. I want to stretch out my limbs up there Just sit back, and soak in the tree lines Hoping to see skyscrapers in the distance I know what my thoughts will be about Absent of any of my other daily distractions. But I'll let gentle rotation of the sky Energize my mind's rocking chair So that all that I will feel Will be the sauntering sway of the trees 020620 ... bespeckled Upon my end, within that place wherein my soul shall rest forever and forever, I will face a final test. "If there should only be one thing," shall chime the pure refrain, "that you could do, that you could change, that you could face again - "Is there one past mistake that tore your heart so greatly that, now knowing what you didn't then, you'd willingly retract? "Is there one wish, one dream unsought, one great enraptured end, which, having been denied you once, you'd now pursue again? Speak now of that peculiar thing o'er which your heart's been torn - some awful burden on your soul that gives you cause to mourn." Then my reply shall flow in haste, my words already known. My answer, same in life and death, will bear a somber tone: "There was a man with whom I shared a love that moved my earth. I bore his pain, his joys, his tears - his love bore my rebirth. "I loved him, yes, I craved him, yes - yet diction cannot say how lungs will yearn when oxygen is just a breath away." So I will give my answer then, the same forevermore: "My one regret is simply that I could not love him more." 020620 ... bespeckled oops. see: regret 020620 what's it to you? who go blather from