On the Balcony

You’re lucky in the city
If a balcony is yours.
How nice, with just a step, to feel
The air and be outdoors.

And so, to share a drink or two,
A woman on a date,
Suggested that they sit outside,
Where atmosphere’d await.

She hopped up on the rail to sit.
Her date expressed some fear;
But she assured him it was safe –
And that’s the last he’d hear.

For as the railing cracked, she fell
From seventeen floors high.
How awful for her new companion,
Witnessing her die.

Be careful what you wish for
Is what I have often heard.
My hunger for a balcony,
For now, has been deferred.