It’s like being born with a clubfoot
to a family of tightrope walkers
standing there amid the heat and horse droppings
and tornadoes of flies is it still home
even if our parents have vanished
our friends too riding the blacked-out train
beneath the drizzly streets of eternity
everything everyone says sounds
just like something someone said before
and when I look back I can see us in the distance
crashing heads shouting racing our shadows
Howie Good, a journalism professor at the State University of New York at New Paltz, is the author of six poetry chapbooks, including most recently Tomorrowland (2008) from Achilles Chapbooks. He has been nominated three times for a Pushcart Prize and twice for the Best of the Net anthology.
© 2008, Howie Good
Halfway Down the Stairs 