#MIDDLEBURY
Coventry Lake
Bruce Cohen
My closest friend emigrated West, petrified
To hop a jet back home; I exist in an equally isolated
East where fish are oblivious to their own
Water, where one loon separates from its flock.
Wind’s kiteless. Names of friends drift away but acquaintances
Remain vivid. What benefit remedy when no symptoms
Equate to any known disease? I pack my anthropomorphic
Lunch: blood oranges, artichoke hearts, kidney beans,
& yes I’ve digested & regurgitated my children or maybe
Vice versa. After rain, I dig for night crawlers under decomposing
Clippings. I fish to be elsewhere, the hoped for thrill & tug
Of the straightening line, the bass that surface trying to spit
The hook. An acquaintance whose wife is very ill articulates
In detail her ailments, positions his easel by the lake, pastels,
Water colors, his stagnant landscapes with finite rectangular skies.
In my middle life, more than ever, I need a once upon a time.
I forget how easy it is to forget-can’t imagine starting
Anything new. I used to love the satisfying finality
At the conclusion of movies when a giant The End
Flashed across the Big Screen. Maybe one solution:
We could all change our names every day. That loon,
Nursing a mangled wing, paddles lopsided, alone,
Unnaturally close to shore, as though attached with kite string.
I toss him the not quite stale bread I smuggle from my pantry
& have been thinking hard about a name for him, for this.
Unapologetically, I settle for the moment of least astonishment.
About this poem
“I often fish at Coventry Lake in the very early morning, and I realize my casual ‘fishing buddies’ are oddly closer to me than my real, lifelong friends. I feel a sense of disparate sadness but also a feeling of longing for my old pals. However, this poignancy might simply be the self-confrontation of middle age.” – Bruce Cohen
About Bruce Cohen
Bruce Cohen is the author of “Imminent Disappearances, Impossible Numbers & Panoramic X-Rays” (New Issues Press, 2016). He teaches at the University of Connecticut and lives in Coventry, Conn.
The Academy of American Poets is a nonprofit, mission-driven organization, whose aim is to make poetry available to a wider audience. Email The Academy at poem-a-day@poets.org.
(c) 2016 Bruce Cohen. Originally published in Poem-a-Day, www.poets.org. Distributed by King Features Syndicate.
