Anybody that knows me knows that poetry is not really one of my strengths. I only get it in the most basic of ways and it doesn’t resonate with me the way that it does with so many of my poet friends. I’m a story guy. Plot, character, theme, pace, verisimilitude: these are the sirens that sing to my creator self.

Being the glutton for punishment that I am, though, I accepted the good-natured challenge of said poet friends and took a stab at one. It’s not grandiose or world changing, but it isn’t horrible either. It’s not horrible enough that it actually found a home in the winter issue of Hypertrophic Literary magazine among a number of other- better -works of literary fiction and poetry that are outside my normal wheelhouse of high octane genre fiction.

With HL’s permission, I’m reprinting my poem below along with a link to the latest issue of the magazine. I encourage everybody to check it out and see if you don’t find a fresh new voice to follow. Enjoy.

I REMEMBER

I remember Kowalski,

Smallest kid on the basketball court,

A deeper voice than any boy had a right to,

A laugh that carried his soul on the wind.

I remember Wendy,

Blonde hair, eyes like thunderclouds,

Walking away from her boyfriend to dance with me,

My first in so many things.

I remember Mike,

Late nights and clattering dice,

Walking worlds that existed in the fields of our imagination,

Nerd rages and laughter that no ‘regular’ person could ever understand.

I remember Tony,

Beer, girls, and hotel rooms that would never be the same again,

Loud music, dark Chicago alleys, and bloody knuckles,

A treestump of a man that carried more spirit than any forest.

Tomorrow, I will wake and greet the sun that rises,

Over a world that they aren’t in anymore.

I will kiss my wife, hug my children,

And tell my grandchildren that I love them from afar.

I’ll laugh and sing and drink too much,

I’ll write and wonder and dream,

I’ll cook and dine and ignore the ache of time in my bones,

And do all the other things they never got the chance to.

Through it all, I will remember.

Because that’s all that I can do.

                                                  C.Steven Manley

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