I would phone the police,
but I know they won’t come
and would only blame me
if they did,
and when I tried to explain
to them that nothing was missing,
it would sound like a lie,
and they would look
from me to the woman
seated at the table
with her head bowed
as evening quietly trembled
and recomposed the shadows
of unseen things.
Howie Good, a journalism professor at the State University of New York at New Paltz, is the author of 12 poetry chapbooks, including most recently Visiting the Dead from Flutter Press, My Heart Draws a Rough Map from The Blue Hour Press, and Ghosts of Breath from Bedouin Books. He has been nominated four times for a Pushcart Prize and five times for the Best of the Net anthology. His first full-length book of poetry, Lovesick, was released in 2009 by Press Americana. He is co-editor of the online literary journal Left Hand Waving.
but I know they won’t come
and would only blame me
if they did,
and when I tried to explain
to them that nothing was missing,
it would sound like a lie,
and they would look
from me to the woman
seated at the table
with her head bowed
as evening quietly trembled
and recomposed the shadows
of unseen things.
Howie Good, a journalism professor at the State University of New York at New Paltz, is the author of 12 poetry chapbooks, including most recently Visiting the Dead from Flutter Press, My Heart Draws a Rough Map from The Blue Hour Press, and Ghosts of Breath from Bedouin Books. He has been nominated four times for a Pushcart Prize and five times for the Best of the Net anthology. His first full-length book of poetry, Lovesick, was released in 2009 by Press Americana. He is co-editor of the online literary journal Left Hand Waving.