without tears

a crowd gathers
around you as you fall
in the street
clutching your heart.
you stare
up to the sky.
you see past the faces,
beyond their frantic
voices,
you see birds afloat
on slow wings,
you see the blueness
behind
the clouds, you smell
the oil
of the street,
the grime
you rest in.
you are alive, more
alive than you have
been in years as
you lay dying, suddenly
awake in strange
joy, without tears.