October 5 / 17

Just Because will be another new segment for Shadowboxerinc. It can be a film, a poem, a song, a paragraph from a book, photo…you get the picture. Here I have a poem I want to share with you from Edward Hirsch called Cotton Candy.

 

COTTON CANDY

by Edward Hirsch

We walked on the bridge over the Chicago River

for what turned out to be the last time,

and I ate cotton candy, that sugary air,

that sweet blue light spun out of nothingness.

It was just a moment, really, nothing more,

but I remember marveling at the study cables

of the bridge that held us up

and threading my fingers through the long

and slender fingers of my grandfather,

an old man from the Old World

who long ago disappeared into the nether regions.

And I remember that eight-year-old boy

who tasted the sweetness of air,

which still clings to my mouth

and disappears when I breathe.

 

Hope you enjoyed the poem, enjoy your Thursday, be blessed.

From The Living Fire: New and Selected Poems (Alfred A. Knopf, 2010) by Edward Hirsch. Copyright © 2010 by Edward Hirsch.

Image source: Fungyung.com