Vertigo

Amid the crowds, those midwinter sidewalks of cynicism,
Fault lines in faces without relief of a smile,
Her fierce bronze profile screamed by
With legs that condensed cloud drops from the sky
As she flew, broad shoulders and a stare that 
Warned 'I dare you' in a wolfish grin.

Moved, I reached skyward with sudden longing for
Flight in her footsteps.
I remember the swoosh! of her hair on take-off,
The glimmer of soul-on-air, then gone.

And I am left plummeting earthwards
Jaw slack from vertigo, abruptly afraid of heights.