Rumored To Be Living…(An Urban Legend) 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 those years,
I, still, tip-toe around crowds,

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

For, it is in the negative space of photographs,
Or an empty chair, left for an affair, at which,
Either Son will look, longingly,

And I, a thousand miles away, feeling a twitch,
Will, still, turn to look his way…

This is the bond between a Father and his Sons…

12.28.07 John Tansey


Copyright ©2008 John Thomas Tansey