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Maine to Georgia
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Maine to Georgia
by Alice Lesnick, 2012
you know this game
you are in a new place
there’s a lull and you look around, a little up the street line
could I live here? the answer must always be yes
yes in a rented room in bangor, pa
where dad and uncle irving went to live during the depression
and a kite was ruined before little brother could fly it
no work for grandfather in nyc, grandma wrote her mother every day to testify
that life went on
even there
yes in downtown seattle
where you sashayed first, a loaf of bread under each arm
and a pack of cigarettes in your sexy jeans
the girl ben franklin as a young anarchist no date to keep
no one else’s time either
yes along the AT a drowsy summer day by pen mar park
where the pavillion (a pavillion!) is already set up for a wedding
and where will follow the very finest in big band era dance music
every sunday from 2 pm to 5 pm rain
or shine
yes
the answer must be yes so
the answer is yes
yes yes
-- the ground itself crying for love of queen anne’s lace, peas
so sweet they burn your eyes and your mind like the tips of hot rods
quiet between the houses muffling god knows what inside, flags
at half-mast for one fallen young like the kite that flew so short a time
the answer is always yes so yes it is yes i am saying yes, you know?
while right next door the neighbor marrieds lush on and the neighbor trees waltz
tenderly
but the thing is the thing is
the thing
is
there’s a window, see,
and your fresh thoughts care for what it opens on
whatever it is, and that it opens
however it does
this game is hard to win