this had to be a bad omen
he always thought about how things were happening to him
they didnt just happen, they happened to him
it was selfish
but it was the only way something could be justified
like today
his co worker was looking for the camera,
he wanted to go down and take pictures but his moral
soul got in the way
he tried just taking pictures from the 6th floor
he could only see a part of the body
a hand and jacket
why would someone jump off a building in a jacket
in the summer?

she was calling her friends and telling them what had just happened
that while we were in the office we saw something fly southward
like a sack of laundry
then we heard the sound, a dull thud
she was excited, rapid clip chinese into a cell phone
she could have been a car commercial
or a sale, she was excited
he just thought
this has to be a bad omen
first day in a foreign country

when the ambulance arrived
it didnt move
the driver
got out and opened the hood of the ambulance
like the ambulance broke down or something
it was having car trouble
there were no lights
no sirens
it sat there with the hood opened
nobody moved
the driver climbed back inside and sat there
this had be a bad omen
it was three hours before the police arrived
the photographer fumbled with different lenses
trying to see if he could get a decent picture from
the 6th floor
the 19 year old girl named beatrice, the one who let us in the office
to check our email yelled at him
to stop being a baby
to stop complaining that he couldnt get the action in focus
i think of her name, Dante, Beatrice leading us from the depths of hell
he looked at the banner stretched across the office door:
"english is your passport to the world"
this has to be a bad omen

he was the first one to walk downstairs
he saw a large sheet of plastic
the same hand the photographer
was talking about upstairs
it was laying outstetched on a park bench
it was old
almost frail
the hand wasnt young at all like us