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Ghosts on the Road

David Rivard on

Published in Poem Of The Day

A bookkeeping man,
tho one sure to knock on wood,
and mostly light

at loose ends-my friend
who is superstitiously funny, & always
sarcastic-save once,

after I'd told him
about Simone's first time
walking-a toddler,

almost alone, she'd
gripped her sweater, right hand
clutched

chest-high, reassured
then, she held on to herself
so, so took a few

quick steps-
oh, he said, you know what? Leonard
Cohen, when he was 13,

after his father's
out-of-the-blue heart attack, he slit
one of the old man's

ties, & slipped a
message into it, then buried it
in his backyard-

73 now, he can't
recall what he wrote-(threadbare
heartfelt prayer perhaps,

or complaint)-
his first writing anyway.
The need to comfort

ourselves is always
strongest at the start,
they say-

do you think
that's true? my friend asked.
I don't, he said,

I think the need
gets stronger, he said, it
just gets stronger.


About this poem
"Sometimes two people speak to each other across distances of space, time and character and actually hear each other. It happens. For the record, by 'bookkeeping man,' I meant someone who is 'making book'-the guy who is laying odds, not an accountant."
-David Rivard

About David Rivard
David Rivard is the author of "Otherwise Elsewhere" (Graywolf Press, 2011). He teaches at the University of New Hampshire and lives in Cambridge, Mass.

***
The Academy of American Poets is a nonprofit, mission-driven organization, whose aim is to make poetry available to a wider audience. Email The Academy at poem-a-day[at]poets.org.


(c) 2015 David Rivard. Originally published by the Academy of American Poets, www.poets.org. Distributed by King Features Syndicate




 


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