After Reading Chekov I Go for a Walk in Town
Knowing almost all, I put the book
in the pocket of my jacket. I feel
them slap, Lady with Lapdog and Other Stories
against my thigh and hip as I walk
in the light. I feel light of heart.
I feel light-headed as if just given
a clean bill of health by my physician.
I pass the men and women in the street
who stop to look in the glass
of shop windows, the men and women
who stop at corners for the light to change,
while the men and women with business
more urgent than mine pass me.
They walk with haste, go secretly to meet
their lovers in dark, airless restaurants.
I recognize them now, yet I still need to see
the terrible denial of the known
in the clearest of eyes before I pause
to look in the mirror of the bookshop window,
to look at failure in the face, before I walk on.
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Nominated for the National Book Award, the Eric Hoffer Book Award, and nominated three times for the Pulitzer Prize, J.R. Solonche is the author of more than 40 books of poetry and coauthor of another. He lives in the Hudson Valley.
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Stone Poetry Quarterly 