J.R. Solonche


Younger


I drove around the lake.
I drove clockwise.

Then I drove counterclockwise.
Then I drove counterclockwise again.

I wanted to see if I was younger after driving counterclockwise twice.
I wasn’t younger.

I was older.
I was twelve minutes older.

But the top was down.
And the music was Ellington.

And the Ellington was loud.
And the music was Basie.

And the Basie was loud.
And the top was down.

So I felt younger.
I felt thirty again.

But I don’t remember being thirty.
So I felt being thirty for the first time.

I drove home.
I looked in on my wife.

She was still seventy-seven.
She still had Alzheimer’s.

She was still in the hospital bed.
She was still asleep or awake.

I still couldn’t tell the difference.
Nor still could she.

 

J.R. Solonche has been nominated for the National Book Award, the Eric Hoffer Book Award, and three times for the Pulitzer Prize. He is the author of over forty books of poetry and coauthor of another. He lives in the Hudson Valley.

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