He asked me if I’d like to jump with him

[joel]

For the leaves, and the falling sun, and the jumping ones

He asked me if I’d like to jump with him—
I said that I was fine & shrugged it off,
aware the crinkled, fleshy hills between
my eyebrows had, most likely, pointed to
impatience more than I’d have hoped to give
away. I raised my middle finger in
my pocket & I turned my back to curse
his proud audacity, since nothing’s worse
than friendliness among the fleeting kin
of suicidal ideations. Live
& let me live; I’d do the same for you—
but that’s a theme for someone else’s scene
& not the way we played the day we’d doff,
jumping off a bridge, falling leaf from limb.