Rooftop Sestina

One day as atop my roof I sat
Upon the street below I looked
And beheld the people as they went
From atop my private perch
How small these people seemed
All in haste about their tasks

All caught up in fleeting tasks
Not one beheld me where I sat
Too engrossed in life they seemed
To see from whence I looked
They spied not my favored perch
And as quickly came as went

Wondering where the time went
They rushed to their silly tasks
And I laughed from atop my perch
Almost falling from where I sat
Like a swirling sea the ground looked
Higher had I gone, or so it seemed

Ever so small this ground seemed
That quickly fear came and went
How unreal the ground looked
And the people about their tasks
I was tempted to leap from where I sat
Just to prove the truth of my perch

I stood halfway off my perch
And halfway upon air that seemed
Real as the roof on which I’d sat
And down below the people went
They and I content with our tasks
I closed my eyes as no one looked

Ground grew close and up I looked
Longing for my abandoned perch
I worried no more of daily tasks
Or the way things were or seemed
And wondered if people watched as I went
If they would simply leave me where I sat

Broken upon the ground I sat and looked
As people went around my newfound perch
As they were late, it seemed, to their tasks