Note for Door by Ed Ochester
Note for Door
Ed OchesterToday when I woke
you were gone
and I
was like a salesman
in a small-town hotel room
drunk on loneliness
and listening to laughter
next door
and I was
a boy scout marooned
in a dry-rotted cabin
by the greatest snowstorm
even seen in northern Vermont
listening to strange birds
scratching the roof
and I was
a man coming home
to his house full of children
and finding nothing there
but the echoes of his scream.I am going out now
to look at
the green ducks
paddle nowhere
on the river
but if you should return
while I’m out marking time
this is to tell you
I’m home.
MARGINALIA
My body is betraying me.
ABOUT ED OCHESTER
Poet Ed Ochester grew up in Brooklyn, New York. He earned a BA from Cornell University, an MA from Harvard University, and an MFA from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. A longtime editor of the Pitt Poetry Series (University of Pittsburgh Press), he is the founding editor of the journal 5AM. His collections of poetry include Sugar Run Road (2015); We Like It Here (1967); Dancing on the Edge of Knives (1973), winner of the Devins Award for… (more)
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ENDNOTES
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veronica
am glad you’re back.
Kate
It scares me every time a few days past without a post.
_cherish
this poem is wonderful.