He Chooses to Remember
Thoughts on reverie, restlessness, and recklessness from the poet laureate of West Virginia.
Midnight, barefoot, without a flashlight, he looks
cotton for the short cut over the cliff.
He remembers July, the sun, the bikinis and
cotton cotton candy, the high dive,
cotton the cold thrill of the water,
cotton the noisy resurrection.
He dreams of the wide-open, deserted prairie,
cotton the Mustang convertible, one hand
cotton on the wheel, the other around her
cotton bare shoulder, cocksure, taking
cotton the long way home.
He accepts the dare, fastens the blind-
cotton fold and drifts into the noise
cotton of rush hour on I-65 North.
He offers the fastest and sweetest of confessions:
cotton forgive, have mercy, whatever.
And hopes for all the guilt to tumble away.
He recalls another confession, an endless litany
cotton of wrongs, theft and deceit, lusts and seductions, lies
cotton like this one, and the priest’s own short cuts
cotton to mercy, his strangled amen.
He kept choosing.
He chose the end-around, side-stepping
cotton requirements, going ahead
cotton into the dim alley, going heedless through
cotton the mine field, going
cotton without his tie, going without
cotton his slacks into the meeting, signing
cotton the contract without
cotton a penny in the bank.
He remembers the anticipation of getting that job, walking
cotton home with the paycheck, remembers there’d been
cotton a flashlight and instructions, that he’d been warned
cotton there were thieves in that alley, a cliff in that woods,
cotton and…that he’d had his slacks pressed
cotton and cleaned reminded him of a fairy tale
cotton about an emperor, of a certain map
cotton through a field, of taking
cotton the long way home.
Marc Harshman’s most recent publication is Dark Hills of Home, issued by Monongahela Books in 2022 to celebrate his tenth anniversary as Poet Laureate of West Virginia. His collection Woman in Red Anorak (Lynx House Press) won the Blue Lynx Prize. His fourteen children’s books include Fallingwater: The Building of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Masterpiece (co-author, Anna Smucker), published by Roaring Brook/Macmillan. His newest collection of poems, Following the Silence, is forthcoming from Press 53, Winston-Salem, North Carolina.