the perch

There was no great view from the perch – just a view higher than everywhere else. That is, until there was built a higher perch. This higher perch wasn’t much higher, and the view was not much greater. But it was enough to belittle the old perch. And, while the second perch could look out over the old perch, the old perch always had the higher perch as a blip on its otherwise impeccable 360 degree circum spectacular. I managed to get up there one time – just once. I happened to be invited, as most are, simply so that the memory of the view from the higher perch could forever taint the enjoyment of lower perches. I even had to buy a new suit, just for the occasion. Two hundred fifty two dollars and ninety five cents so that nothing would be as sweet, or clear, or as high again as that view from the higher perch. Still, in the sweet moments of self-delusion, I would keep my own perch – that little place that I go to feel that the view is all my own and no one else’s. Never mind the man on the perch just behind who’s blocking whole swaths of the sky.