Where I’m From

I came straight from work

to meet them on the corner,

but, of course,

they had already become

fine particles of smoke.

While I waited, I listened to music

for barbed wire and accordion.

The short days of winter

had sneaked up on us,

the sky like a fogged mirror,

the frozen puddles like pale bruises.

I stood there for what seemed a lifetime,

naked by then and shivering

and with my hands raised

in the air, an unqualified witness

to an unspecified event.

Bio: Howie Good, a journalism professor at the State University of New York at New Paltz, is the author of 11 poetry chapbooks, including Still Life with Firearms (2009) from Right Hand Pointing, Visiting the Dead (2009) from Flutter Press, and My Heart Draws a Rough Map (2009) from The Blue Hour Press.  He has been nominated four times for a Pushcart Prize and five times for the Best of the Net anthology.  His first full-length book of poetry, Lovesick, was released in 2009 by Press Americana.  He is co-editor of the online literary journal Left Hand Waving.