Rumored To Be Living… Poem by John Tansey

Rumored to be Living…

An Urban Legend

I have been holding my breath
Since boyhood,
Seated in the back row of every class.

Pouting and turning blue,
I waited, obstinately,
Grade after grade,

For the teacher or Hypoxia to reach me.

Now, a lifetime later, and
Left back all of those years,
I still tip-toe around crowds,

Skirt the outer umbra of hot spots,
And live in an attic, like an urban legend,
Always on the fringe, just within rumor.

For, it is only in the negative spaces of photographs,
Or an empty chair at gatherings, that I am even sensed, at all.


12.28.07 John Tansey


Copyright ©2008 John Thomas Tansey