At Lake Scugog by Troy Jollimore
At Lake Scugog
Troy Jollimore1.
Where what I see comes to rest,
at the edge of the lake,
against what I think I seeand, up on the bank, who I am
maintains an uneasy truce
with who I fear I am,while in the cabin’s shade the gap between
the words I said
and those I remember sayingis just wide enough to contain
the remains that remain
of what I assumed I knew.2.
Out in the canoe, the person I thought you were
gingerly trades spots
with the person you areand what I believe I believe
sits uncomfortably next to
what I believe.When I promised I will always give you
what I want you to want,
you heard, or desired to hear,something else. As, over and in the lake,
the cormorant and its image
traced paths through the sky.
MARGINALIA
I think this week will be one of those where I’m going to work myself ragged. Here’s a poem while I’m waiting for better days.
ABOUT TROY JOLLIMORE
Troy Jollimore’s first book of poetry, Tom Thomson in Purgatory, won the 2006 National Book Critics Circle Award. His other poetry collections include At Lake Scugog (2011) and Syllabus of Errors (2015), both published in the Princeton Series of Contemporary Poets. His poems have appeared in the New Yorker, McSweeney’s, the Believer, and other publications. He earned a PhD in philosophy from Princeton University and is currently a professor in the philosophy department… (more)
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ENDNOTES
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