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Column 618

Going Down

Intro by Ted Kooser
01.22.2017

See­ing a stranger who reminds you of some­one else, well, it hap­pens to all of us. After my father died I saw dozens of lit­tle old men in hats like he wore, on their way here and there, not quite my dad, but close. Here Jonathan Brack­er, who lives in San Fran­cis­co, sees for a moment some­one he was once in love with. His most recent col­lec­tion of poems is This Day (WordTech Press, 2015). 

Going Down

Going down the escalator
of the subway, I glanced across
and saw on the escalator's partner
rising up
someone who looked a bit like you but with hair
not so soft and clean and warm as yours
brushing against mine
on those rare occasions
when inadvertently our foreheads
neared, making me wish it to stay.

We were not physical lovers
and never could have been.
But we were close. Moved three states away,
married happily or not, you are now
only a person I may hope to meet
momentarily, and not really then: merely
in my mind, because of what I chance to see.
But I am not unhappy about this
or think that I am not. Because of your hair.
Because of your beautiful hair.

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We do not accept unsolicited submissions

We do not accept unsolicited submissions. American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright© 2016 by Jonathan Bracker, “Going Down." Poem reprinted by permission of Jonathan Bracker. Introduction copyright © 2024 by The Poetry Foundation.