Portrait Of A Foggy Night

                        This is mostly to say that
this room was empty when I first arrived.
Now the bed is pushed against the back
of my desk, to which my dresser is adjoined.
But these are arbitrary things, and remnants
mostly of cookie-cutter memories passed down
by students from last year all the way back
to the dawn of time (1972, I have been told).

                        But then there are other things;
there are sticky notes and thumb tacks and even
shoe scruffs that cover the off-white tile floors.
There are specks of dust of which I cannot see,
but which have covered this room to some degree,
as if to cloud my memories of what this place was
before I arrived, and who I was when I first walked in.

                        There are Christmas lights that still
hang around three of the walls, as if to remind me
that I made it through my first semester. There are
books - Thoreau, Solnit, Montaigne, Saeed Jones, -
all dog-eared and sticky-noted and always speaking;
always reminding.

                        There are vinyl records on my shelf
that did not exist when I first walked into this room;
they know only of the dust.

                        I have never made love in this room.

                        There was once a night where I decided
to go for a walk at some late hour. Perhaps twelve or one,
though I cannot recall for certain. And so I walked into
the embrace of this foggy, starless night, and I felt bound
to this place in a way that I welcomed, though it was a
far cry from the New England life I had come to know.
There were deer wandering as well; even through the fog

I could see them.

 

                        The deer did not flee on that foggy night;
                        they only stopped to watch over me.

Reviews

[SammMG]

Such a thoughtful read. There are times in my life where I can't help but really look at places and things around me and just wonder about it's history. Who's been there, what's happened here. All around us is history, and only a few can take the time to really look at what there is.

Great job Colin, keep up the good work!

[Colin Kingsden]

Thoughts like that have always intrigued me. And when it's time to move on to another place, it really gets you wondering about everyone else who has moved on before... houses / apartments / dorm rooms really carry that feeling more than anything, it would seem. It makes for great inspiration.

Thanks for the thoughtful conversation... (:
-C. Kingsden