Hometown

I fantasized about killing myself
While walking with the baby
Yesterday afternoon.
It made me feel better
Because it reminded me
How temporary this was,
Just as the town you’re leaving
The day after tomorrow
Is postcard perfect.

It helped me see this city
As another place
With wheeling social circles
That don’t know me,
With nicknames and responsibilities
Nobody in New York would have,
With freckles and teeth and cars,
With hair and veins and eyes
Borrowed like sugar
From their parents
Two doors down,

All content in a small town
Ensconced in familiar nature
For which they have handles,
Like the sharp bend in the river
And the split boulder by the point,

And some waddle like librarians,
And some stride like farmhands,
But they’re all polite
When they ask,
“What brings you here?”
As if I haven’t been visiting
My entire life.

Best of the Net nominee, Rich Glinnen, enjoys bowling, and eating his daughter’s cheeks at his home in Bayside, NY. His work can be read in various print and online journals, as well as on his Tumblr and Instagram pages. His wife calls him Ho-ho.