Wednesday, July 21, 2010

James Babbs

Places I Remember

the Woolworths restaurant
in the mall
right next to the store and
no matter how many times
I asked my Mom
she never let me
eat there

the backseat of
my parents’ car
on our way home
gazing at the places
passing by the window
trying to remember them
wanting to come back
and see them
again
some day

the baseball diamond
next to the old high school
after dark when
no games were being played
and I sat in
the visitors’ dugout
beneath the falling moonlight
dreaming of
some other place

your house on the corner
the front door with
the knob on
the wrong side and
I always knocked
where the hinges were
waiting for you to answer
not too many years
before you moved away


Blue

I remember
how every wall in
her apartment was white
except the section
at the end of the hallway
that somebody had painted blue
I didn’t know
if that was suppose to
mean something or not
I never asked her about it
and we stopped seeing each other
years ago
but every now and then
I catch myself
thinking about
that blue piece of wall
but I never seem to
think much about her
don’t get me wrong
she wasn’t a bad person
it just didn’t work out
between us
for one reason or another and
maybe
if you went and asked her
she’d tell you
the same thing about me


His poetry collection, Dictionary of Chaos, is available from www.xlibris.com and my chapbook, Another Beautiful Night can be found at www.lulu.com.

Saturday, July 17, 2010