Still Life with Window and Chair
Buy Issue for $25 at JHUP- Still Life with Window and Chair
Under some haze of moment and smoke— trees, the mumbled colors of cars, street signs, or waiting here
how the breath slows on its draw down the chest, until the hush in the lungs lows: a past you’d promised
to leave for good. On the phone, your lover’s voice worries spaces, distance—concerns passed to a neighbor on the train.
Was that you, then, lost in the morning paper, adrift from the world, the words? If these lines reach you, believe that I once saw clear. Something
darked the lights. Someone tripped the brake and ran. Stay inside. The days grow halting sure—the afternoon, its reach. [End Page 221]
Steve Wilson teaches in the MFA program in creative writing at Texas State University in San Marcos. His published books include Allegory Dance and The Singapore Express.
