Against the Gutter's Curb

Advice from the Experts
Bill Knott

I lay down in the empty street and parked
My feet against the gutter's curb while from
The building above a bunch of gawkers perched
Along its ledges urged me don't, don't jump.
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I had to read this poem twice, three times even, because the poem is so short and has so much meaning packed into four lines. The poem toys with the reader's sense of perspective, and it takes a little while for the abnormal perspective to sink in. When I first read this poem, I assumed that the speaker was jumping from the top of a building. When I read it another time, however, I realized that the speaker was merely laying on the ground and putting his/her feet against the curb. The "gawkers perched/Along its ledges" are only birds looking down from the tops of buildings, staring at the speaker lying on the ground.