How a photographer landed on the valet at L’Opera

by Roger Camp

How a photographer landed on the valet at L’Opera
for Len Matsuk

I was told by someone
who was standing in line
valet ticket extended,

as it turned out, for infinity,
that the body fell
four stories.

L’Opera going dark
the lunch crowd pouring out
before the yellow tape

and chalk were marked.
The police
jumping to conclusions

by concluding he had jumped.
Only later did they learn
the jumper was a photographer

who liked high places
scouting sites in advance
for his photographs.

No one knows
how he slipped
or why

not having looked
if the view
offered an image so extraordinary

to be worth his life.