{"id":2102,"date":"2021-11-30T21:46:06","date_gmt":"2021-12-01T01:46:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/?page_id=2102"},"modified":"2022-03-02T16:04:48","modified_gmt":"2022-03-02T20:04:48","slug":"about-a-boy","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/poetry-archive\/about-a-boy\/","title":{"rendered":"about a boy"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n
\r\n
\"\"\r\n
“Sing in The Sunshine”<\/em> by GJ Gillespie<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

about a boy<\/strong>
Michael Passafiume<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

If you had told me all
these years later I\u2019d still be
writing about a boy
who had the power of invisibility
but never knew it because
everywhere he looked
he saw himself,
about a mother who said
You can move mountains,
just not any of the ones
I sit atop \u2014 and I sit atop
all of them<\/em>,
about a father whose eyes
spoke volumes, each volume
diamond-tipped &
cutting cutting cutting<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

If you had told me all
these years later daybreak
still heralded terrors
yet to come,
dusk seesawing between
purgatory & limbo
& the night, oh, the night
fattened with vacuous truths
& you believe them
all all all<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

If you had told me all
these years later that love
is a jewel thief
with broken fingers, sex between
existentially displaced souls
just a couple of FOR SALE signs
on a used car lot;
& neither shall you question
divorce, nor suicide, nor a daughter
whose name is no longer the one
you gave her & who shall never
know yours but I am not
bitter bitter bitter<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

If you had told me all
these years later: medication
is a broken-nosed boxer
speaking in tongues,
talk therapy one long conversation
had week after week in the same
car of the same train,
a train with no destination even though
the conductor keeps yelling
The next stop is…!,<\/em>
& you listen so hard, words crashing
into deafening white noise until,
finally, all you\u2019re thinking is
Oh, my god, will you please shut the fuck
up up up<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

If you had told me all
these years later about a boy
trapped inside a man,
trapped inside a boy,
still attempting to unravel
the mysteries of a universe that has been,
& will always be, unknowable,
I would have asked
Where were you you you?<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n

\r\n\r\n\r\n

Michael Passafiume\u2019s<\/strong> poems have appeared in numerous publications. His
chapbook, “archipelagos,” is available from Blue Hour Press. He lives in
Brooklyn, NY and occasionally tweets from @passafiume.<\/span><\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

about a boyMichael Passafiume If you had told me allthese years later I\u2019d still bewriting about a boywho had the power of invisibilitybut never knew it becauseeverywhere he lookedhe saw Continue Reading →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3221,"featured_media":0,"parent":1261,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2102"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3221"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2102"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2102\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2474,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2102\/revisions\/2474"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}