​ferris wheel

we walked on the pier hand-in-hand many years ago
before either of us could remember clearly
there never used to be mosquitos here. 
your hand in mine, i stand on the right side
of the narrow sidewalk and when
the half-dead trees come into our path,
i step into the street to avoid them. 

don’t you remember? 

we scale the sky and reach our fingertips to the air.
clutching at tantalizing shadows of stars
and we forget everything for a fleeting
ten minutes of freedom
amid a carnival of lucid dreaming 
white sneakers stained with the dust of childrens' footsteps.

it almost makes sense for the world to be two
parallel planes: Earth and unreachable Paradise 

i can see people from here
and cars, and trees,
the city of a hundred lights below us
and ten thousand lights above 

let's stay forever, shall we? 
the sun doesn't need to shine
for us to stay eternally entranced.

we’re so far up yet
nowhere close to heaven