WOMAN ON THE BALCONY

Written on 08/19/2026
Poetic Outlaws

By: A.D. Winans
Pour l'amour des livres: Photo
I see her two
three times a week
sitting on the balcony
when weather permits
here in old Italy town
in what is left of North Beach
her robe slightly parted
thumbing through the pages of a book
taking no notice of the people down below

standing to stretch, she yawns
legs like sturdy pillars that stretch
to reach the sky into the boundaries
of my mind
my eyes begging to read the pages
she turns with sensual fingers
wanting just one quick look
one intimate journey into the pages
into the space between the
parting of her robe
a journey to forbidden places
a flight back in time
to another place another world
high on a balcony where
I too ignore the
people coming and going
down below

Subscribe now

Thanks so for reading. Everything I write, research, and curate for this Substack is made possible by readers like you. This page is entirely reader-supported — a labor of love, kept alive by the people who find meaning in it. If you’ve been enjoying the work and aren’t quite ready to subscribe, but still want to support it in some way, you can leave a one-time tip through Buy Me a Coffee — if that’s within your reach.

Every gesture, every note of encouragement, every quiet reader who lingers here — you’ve helped turn this into something rare and luminous: a small, strange, beautiful corner of the internet. I’m deeply grateful. Thank you for being part of it.

Buy Me A Coffee