When the suns stands still

Summer Solstice, New York City
Sharon Olds

By the end of the longest day of the year he could not stand it,
he went up the iron stairs through the roof of the building
and over the soft, tarry surface
to the edge, put one leg over the complex green tin cornice
and said if they came a step closer that was it.

Then the huge machinery of the earth began to work for his life...